Thesis (doctoral)--Wageningen Universiteit, 2004. / "Propositions" inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation aims to address the importance of financial literacy within the capability approach framework in the context of microfinance institutions’ clients in Indonesia, by raising four main issues. The first touches on financial capability and specifically focuses on its conceptualisation, predictors, and relationship with quality of life. A participatory method was employed to understand whether financial literacy is viewed as an important element of financial capability. An index of financial capability was built to investigate factors predicting financial capability and the relationship between financial capability and quality of life. The results suggest that socio-demographic discrepancies in financial capability exist, and financial capability is relevant for the improvement of quality of life. The remaining three issues centre on the instrumental value of financial literacy. In the second part, it is proposed that financial literacy is a relevant conversion factor. Within the capability approach literature itself, there is a lack of empirical discussion on conversion factors. It can be concluded that financial literacy is associated positively with conversion rate efficiency. The third research topic examined is the role of financial literacy in household financial decision-making authority. Previous studies have used household decision-making authority as a reflection of agency, which is an important building block of the capability approach. This thesis focuses on financial decision making, which is often perceived as “difficult”, “boring”, and “full of uncertainties”. It is suggested that the relationship between financial literacy and household financial decision-making authority is complex and contingent upon various factors. The role of financial literacy in the relationship between financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being is the last topic investigated in this dissertation. While decision-making authority has been argued as a reflection of human agency and source of power within households, it can also be perceived as a burden. These two interpretations of authority lead to an unclear relationship between household financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being. While a negative relationship between household financial decision-making authority and subjective well-being can be found among those with low levels of financial literacy, a similar correlation is absent among those who score high in financial literacy. This suggests that skills are important for people to value agency.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Education) / The National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa of 2006 (NPF) outlines seven principles which underpin this policy as expressed in the Norms and Standards for Educators (2000). These principles require a teacher to be: a specialist in a particular learning area, subject or phase; a specialist in teaching, learning and assessment; a curriculum developer; a leader, administrator and manager; a scholar and lifelong learner; and a professional who plays a role in community development, citizenship education, and pastoral care. Beginner teachers have difficulty adapting to these new roles as they have not had efficient exposure to the actual, often harsh realities of the classroom situation as it unfolds on a daily basis. A qualitative research approach is employed in the research study to explore beginner teachers' perceptions of school support to enhance their capability sets in relation to teacher education policy. Generally, a qualitative study lends itself to developing an understanding of a particular phenomenon of interest without formulating a hypothesis. In this explorative study, the investigation was underpinned by the elements of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach which include "Freedoms", "Unfreedoms", "Capabilities" and "Functionings" (Sen 1992). These elements were used to understand the nature of beginner teachers' competences and the impact of policy on their performance. In this regard, the achievement of quality learning outcomes concerning the basic competences of beginner teachers could be linked to Sen's vision for reaching achieved functionings (those valuable activities and situations that make up a person's well-being, which is also referred to as that which a person ultimately manages "to be and to do").

A capacidade inovativa não é um assunto recente, mas ainda não possui consenso entre os pesquisadores na sua definição. Alguns estudos, como os de Rush, Bessant e Hobday (2007) e Cetindamar et al. (2009), propuseram modelos de avaliação da capacidade inovativa como resultado do processo de aprendizagem tecnológica. Nesta abordagem, ter capacidade inovativa significa adquirir informações, transformá-las em novos conhecimentos, promover a mudança tecnológica e obter novos produtos. Seguindo esta abordagem, o objetivo deste trabalho foi o de estabelecer um modelo que pudesse analisar a capacidade inovativa através da capacidade absortiva e da capacidade tecnológica mediante a inclusão de uma variável de validação econômica, o desempenho inovativo das empresas. Isto foi realizado através de um levantamento [survey] em 491 empresas da indústria cosmética brasileira. Em 202, como resultado se obteve uma grande quantidade de empresas que lançam produtos cosméticos em função do conhecimento contido na sua própria cadeia produtiva. Desta forma, clientes e fornecedores possuem um papel importante no desenvolvimento de produtos deste setor e as mudanças tecnológicas acabam centradas em melhorias, o que confere menor grau de novidade aos produtos. A partir da análise de cluster proposta neste trabalho foi possível identificar um cluster com maior desempenho inovativo e que apresenta diferenças nas suas práticas com relação ao grande grupo de empresas. / Innovative capability is not a recent issue but still there is no consensus among researchers as to its definition. Some studies, such as Rush, Bessant and Hobday (2007) and Cetindamar et al. (2009), have proposed models for evaluation of innovative capability as a result of the technological learning process. According to this approach, being innovative capable means to acquire information, turn into new knowledge, promote technological changes and get new products. Following this view, the aim of this study was to establish a model that would be able to analyze the innovative capability through the absorptive capacity and technological capability by including a economic variable, the innovative performance of the firms. This was accomplished through a survey conducted among 491 Brazilian companies in the cosmetics industry. In 202, as a result, it was obtained a large number of companies that launch cosmetics from the contained knowledge in their own supply chain. Thus, customers and suppliers have an important role in product development. The technological changes in this industry are focused on improvements, which gives a less degree of novelty in products. Through the cluster analysis, it was possible to identify a cluster with the highest innovative performance. This cluster differs in its practices with respect to the large group of companies.

Magister Educationis - Med / Since the dawn of democracy, the South African government has set up different measures to improve education in schools, inter alia the provision of funding, resources, feeding schemes and the introduction and amendment to different curricula. The current education policy, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), was adopted in 2012 following three other consecutive education policies that had not delivered to the desired standard in terms of educational outcome. This study focuses on the perceptions of teachers in terms of their freedom to pursue the aims of CAPS in low-income school communities. The teachers' perceptions and freedoms were explored and analyzed using the Capabilities Approach (CA) authored by Amartya Sen which forefronts the capabilities (the ability to achieve) and the functionings (real achievements). Teachers' perceptions were therefore explored and analyzed in terms of freedoms and unfreedoms they enjoy and face in the process of transferring the knowledge to learners. The thesis studied and analyzed the capabilities and perceptions of teachers in terms of their real freedoms through the deconstruction of their experiences.

A capacidade inovativa não é um assunto recente, mas ainda não possui consenso entre os pesquisadores na sua definição. Alguns estudos, como os de Rush, Bessant e Hobday (2007) e Cetindamar et al. (2009), propuseram modelos de avaliação da capacidade inovativa como resultado do processo de aprendizagem tecnológica. Nesta abordagem, ter capacidade inovativa significa adquirir informações, transformá-las em novos conhecimentos, promover a mudança tecnológica e obter novos produtos. Seguindo esta abordagem, o objetivo deste trabalho foi o de estabelecer um modelo que pudesse analisar a capacidade inovativa através da capacidade absortiva e da capacidade tecnológica mediante a inclusão de uma variável de validação econômica, o desempenho inovativo das empresas. Isto foi realizado através de um levantamento [survey] em 491 empresas da indústria cosmética brasileira. Em 202, como resultado se obteve uma grande quantidade de empresas que lançam produtos cosméticos em função do conhecimento contido na sua própria cadeia produtiva. Desta forma, clientes e fornecedores possuem um papel importante no desenvolvimento de produtos deste setor e as mudanças tecnológicas acabam centradas em melhorias, o que confere menor grau de novidade aos produtos. A partir da análise de cluster proposta neste trabalho foi possível identificar um cluster com maior desempenho inovativo e que apresenta diferenças nas suas práticas com relação ao grande grupo de empresas. / Innovative capability is not a recent issue but still there is no consensus among researchers as to its definition. Some studies, such as Rush, Bessant and Hobday (2007) and Cetindamar et al. (2009), have proposed models for evaluation of innovative capability as a result of the technological learning process. According to this approach, being innovative capable means to acquire information, turn into new knowledge, promote technological changes and get new products. Following this view, the aim of this study was to establish a model that would be able to analyze the innovative capability through the absorptive capacity and technological capability by including a economic variable, the innovative performance of the firms. This was accomplished through a survey conducted among 491 Brazilian companies in the cosmetics industry. In 202, as a result, it was obtained a large number of companies that launch cosmetics from the contained knowledge in their own supply chain. Thus, customers and suppliers have an important role in product development. The technological changes in this industry are focused on improvements, which gives a less degree of novelty in products. Through the cluster analysis, it was possible to identify a cluster with the highest innovative performance. This cluster differs in its practices with respect to the large group of companies.

Master of Science / Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Shing I. Chang / The process capability is a measurable property of a process related to the specification of a product. Traditionally, process capability analysis (PCA) measurements are expressed by a process capability ratio (PCR). When using a typical PCR to measure process capability, there are certain assumptions, and critics have been made towards PCR, that some the assumptions are violated. Much research has been conducted to ratify the situations when some of the assumptions are violated. This thesis, is going to demonstrate a research towards process capability using Sample Entropy method. The desirable outcome would be that this method can avoid violating the assumptions.

A capacidade inovativa não é um assunto recente, mas ainda não possui consenso entre os pesquisadores na sua definição. Alguns estudos, como os de Rush, Bessant e Hobday (2007) e Cetindamar et al. (2009), propuseram modelos de avaliação da capacidade inovativa como resultado do processo de aprendizagem tecnológica. Nesta abordagem, ter capacidade inovativa significa adquirir informações, transformá-las em novos conhecimentos, promover a mudança tecnológica e obter novos produtos. Seguindo esta abordagem, o objetivo deste trabalho foi o de estabelecer um modelo que pudesse analisar a capacidade inovativa através da capacidade absortiva e da capacidade tecnológica mediante a inclusão de uma variável de validação econômica, o desempenho inovativo das empresas. Isto foi realizado através de um levantamento [survey] em 491 empresas da indústria cosmética brasileira. Em 202, como resultado se obteve uma grande quantidade de empresas que lançam produtos cosméticos em função do conhecimento contido na sua própria cadeia produtiva. Desta forma, clientes e fornecedores possuem um papel importante no desenvolvimento de produtos deste setor e as mudanças tecnológicas acabam centradas em melhorias, o que confere menor grau de novidade aos produtos. A partir da análise de cluster proposta neste trabalho foi possível identificar um cluster com maior desempenho inovativo e que apresenta diferenças nas suas práticas com relação ao grande grupo de empresas. / Innovative capability is not a recent issue but still there is no consensus among researchers as to its definition. Some studies, such as Rush, Bessant and Hobday (2007) and Cetindamar et al. (2009), have proposed models for evaluation of innovative capability as a result of the technological learning process. According to this approach, being innovative capable means to acquire information, turn into new knowledge, promote technological changes and get new products. Following this view, the aim of this study was to establish a model that would be able to analyze the innovative capability through the absorptive capacity and technological capability by including a economic variable, the innovative performance of the firms. This was accomplished through a survey conducted among 491 Brazilian companies in the cosmetics industry. In 202, as a result, it was obtained a large number of companies that launch cosmetics from the contained knowledge in their own supply chain. Thus, customers and suppliers have an important role in product development. The technological changes in this industry are focused on improvements, which gives a less degree of novelty in products. Through the cluster analysis, it was possible to identify a cluster with the highest innovative performance. This cluster differs in its practices with respect to the large group of companies.

Abstract Many software-intensive products and systems on the market today reveal a poor level of usability despite the availability of knowledge about how to develop good usability, namely user-centred design. Improving the status of user-centred design has proved to be a challenge in product development. An effective step to start out on the road to such improvements is to carry out a current state analysis. Our research problem was to learn how to perform an effective current state analysis, i.e. an assessment, of user-centred design processes to provide a basis for improvement action. As the main part of our research, we carried out five experimental assessments in industrial settings during the years 2000 and 2001. The main result of the research is a novel assessment approach. The objective of the approach is to provide a basis for improvement of the performance of user-centred design in individual product development projects. The particular features of the approach are a new user-centred design process model, a three-dimensional process performance model and implementation of the assessment in the form of a workshop with extensive participation by the project members. The user-centred design process model is method-independent, and consists of six processes that are defined through outcomes. The performance of processes is assessed from the viewpoints of quantity, quality, and integration. Our theoretical examinations show that different assessment categories can be identified depending on the different foci and purposes of an assessment. Moreover, it may even be appropriate to have different assessment approaches for different categories. In the category of our focus and purpose, i.e. 'assessment of user-centred design processes for performance improvement', the focus of an assessment should be in the substance rather than in the management of UCD processes. An assessment approach should be regarded as an artefact and it should be subject to ongoing refinement. An assessment should be an intervention that provides both an effective training session and a meaningful experience to the participants. Clarity in both the concepts and the results seems to take precedence over having standard reference models. In addition, we created a preliminary theory of usability capability. It identifies three dimensions of usability capability: user-centred design infrastructure, performance of user-centred design in product development projects and usability in business strategy. We also propose some new assessment artefacts for other assessment categories and contrast our research experience with established research frameworks.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of DevOps adoption on organizational agility. The first chapter establishes through literature review and a pilot study, a theoretical definition of DevOps and identifies through survey data, the key DevOps adoption capabilities. The definition and key capabilities identified during the pilot study establishes the foundation through which a subsequent study is performed. The second chapter details an examination of the effects of DevOps adoption capability on organizational agility. Through capability theory, we propose that DevOps adoption capability positively affects organizational agility. We also propose that the capabilities of collaboration/communication, continuous monitoring, measurement and automation positively affect DevOps adoption capability and likewise; the capabilities of responsiveness, competency, flexibility, and quickness affect organizational agility capability. We test our model with survey data collected from 333 respondents and find that our hypotheses are supported and that DevOps adoption capability has a positive effect on organizational agility capability. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems