Tong Chun Wah. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2010-2011, design report."

This thesis explores the relationship between culture and human-centred design in Botswana, a topic on which there is little previous research. The pinnacle of good product innovation is when it is grounded on sensitive cultural analysis of users' culture; however, it has been observed that designers have not yet been able to encode cultural phenomena to the same extent as cognitive and physical human factors. The study develops a theoretical framework of cultural analysis, comparing traditional with contemporary socio-cultural factors that can be applied to designing products. The content analysis method was used to extract and synthesise traditional and contemporary socio-cultural factors from Botswana's cultural sources. An experimental study was undertaken in Botswana to investigate how socio-cultural factors can be integrated in product design, and the participants' challenge was to transfer and apply these into product features that reflect Botswana's culture. This data was analysed using the qualitative method of textual and visual content analysis. A culture-orientated design model has been proposed to assist designers to consciously integrate culture in their design practice. The framework demonstrates how to specify, analyse and integrate socio-cultural factors in the early stages of the design process by advancing local thought, content and solutions. It advances a new approach to design education, theory, research and practice. It emerged that culture can be used as a resource of information and a source of inspiration for product innovation that connects with users' traditions. The research findings show that culture-orientated products have meaningful content that reflects users' lifestyles as well as providing them with symbolic personal, social and cultural values, and that these aspects facilitate product acceptance.

The pursuit of new opportunities is at the heart of entrepreneurship. Creating the organizational environment to recognize and seize such opportunities is fundamental to entrepreneurial success and yet, the relationship between organizational design and entrepreneurship has received limited attention. Drawing on extant research in the fields of corporate venturing, technology business incubation, organizational design and governance, this dissertation addresses these research gaps by presenting four studies. The first relies on abductive reasoning to develop a conceptual framework for typologizing the design of the heterogeneous accelerator phenomenon. The second study empirically develops an organizational design typology of various corporate accelerator archetypes, as a key mechanism for the process of technology business incubation and corporate venturing. It further highlights how corporate accelerator design evolved over time. The third study addresses organizational decision systems and specifically, the role of the board of directors in young, entrepreneurial ventures. The fourth study presents a case study and teaching note exploring how to design an entrepreneurial organization and sustain its flexibility, adaptability and entrepreneurial DNA over the long term. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the field of entrepreneurship by extending prevailing knowledge on the why, how, and what of corporate accelerators, new venture boards and the organizational design behind such entrepreneurial entities.