Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1987. / Thesis Advisor(s): Boger, Dan C. Second Reader: Andrus, Alvin F. "September 1987." Description based on title screen as viewed on April 23, 2010. DTIC Descriptor(s): Army Budgets, Decision Making, Goal Programming, Antimissile Defense Systems, Army Operations, Coefficients, Computer Programs, Hierarchies, Linearity, Management, Military Strategy, Mathematical Models, Operations Research, Personnel, Sensitivity, Theses, Army Research. DTIC Identifier(s): Army strategic defense command, Analytic hierarchy process. Author(s) subject terms: Goal Programming " Analytic Hierarchy Process, R&D Project Funding Models. Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-167). Also available in print.

This dissertation investigates the role of public support for R&D in product innovation. In particular, I consider the role of matching grant programs and develop a theoretical model to analyze optimal private and public choices in a game-theoretic framework. This research develops-theoretical models to examine welfare implications of various policies that promote R&D. The first chapter of my dissertation develops a theoretical model of product innovation where R&D effort is endogenous and its outcome uncertain. The government attempts to aid such efforts with a matching grant. I consider different scenarios depending on whether two parties act simultaneously, act sequentially, or take part in a dynamic cooperative game with a trigger strategy. I also consider the case when the products are exported and when they are not. I analyze situations when government intervention increases the chances of product innovation and when it does not. The second chapter introduces foreign competition in a goods market, and analyzes the effects of foreign competition on domestic private and public incentives to product innovate. Government uses matching grant programs to aid private attempts to develop new goods. The government also tries to protect the domestic firm by imposing import tariff. Two policies are then considered simultaneously to investigate the effect of trade liberalization on product innovation. The third chapter considers technological partnerships between private and public sectors as R&D promoting policy. I assume increasing returns in R&D, and study whether government should support product innovation by helping with fixed costs or variable costs associated with product R&D.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLCS.pdf: 2067913 bytes, checksum: fe03f2f8092b1ff62a76fa171f4216c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-08-11 / Studies comparing two technological institutes in Mercosul -The Industrial Technologic Institute, in Argentina, and the Technological Research Institute, in Brazil - focus on management projects in research and Development, in institutional level. Through the literature, it is identify, areas and subjects that allow the analyses of institutional management R&D projects (IMRDP). The history of the two institutes was study to identify the similarity and the differences of them. The field research is composed by an interview which was framed through literature subjects and documents in the following topics: general vision and IMRDP operations in the institutes; institutional management; process effectives results; people´s communication involved with projects and the institution; experiences acquired in the institutions. Of all interviews, one quarter was directed to high management, one quarter to functional gerency and two quarter to project managers. The discussion results, thanks to the methodology and schedule, determined that institutions did not have IMRDP, although both institutions considered the importance of its implementation. It was clear that the IMRDP structure, in any institution, have to consider the institutional culture, history, staff, structure and market, even though there are similar subjects and areas between the two institutions. / Estudo de casos comparativo de dois institutos tecnológicos em países do Mercosul o Instituto de Tecnologia Industrial (INTI), na Argentina e o Instituto de Pesquisa Tecnológica (IPT), no Brasil com foco na gestão de projetos de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D), no nível institucional. Identifica na literatura áreas e temas pelos quais é possível analisar a Gestão Institucional de Projetos de P&D (GIPPD), para então voltar-se ao estudo da história das duas instituições, contextualizando-as e identificando pontos de identidade e diferenciação. Elabora uma pesquisa de campo utilizando-se de entrevista estruturada, a partir do mapeamento que resultou na solução gráfica representativa dos temas identificados no estudo da literatura e dos documentos: visão geral da GIPPD e seu funcionamento em cada instituição; estrutura organizacional; projetos de P&D e o planejamento institucional; Gestão Institucional; resultados efetivos dos processos; comunicação entre os atores dos projetos e a instituição e experiências adquiridas na instituição. As entrevistas foram dirigidas numa proporção de um quarto à Alta Direção (AD), um quarto aos Gerentes Funcionais (GF) e dois quartos aos Gerentes de Projeto (GP). A discussão dos resultados, facilitada pela metodologia e a tabela dinâmica empregadas, permitiu que se concluísse pela nãoexistência de uma GIPPD estruturada nas instituições estudadas, embora os entrevistados considerem válida a sua implantação nas suas organizações. Observa-se que a estruturação de GIPPD em qualquer instituição deverá levar em conta sua cultura institucional, sua história, seu quadro funcional, sua estrutura e seu mercado, no sentido amplo, embora elas venham a ter sempre um conjunto básico de áreas e temas comuns.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:21:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo6061_1.pdf: 1109625 bytes, checksum: 2b62b0ffaf39ded813245948960fff11 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar os projetos de P&D da Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco (Chesf), como um estudo de caso do setor elétrico brasileiro. As variáveis escolhidas foram: tipo de pesquisa, recursos econômicos aplicados, composição e titulação da equipe de projetos, produção técnica e científica, orientações acadêmicas e produtos obtidos. Foram realizadas entrevistas com 41 gerentes de projetos de P&D na intenção de coletar informações quanto ao grau de aplicações dos produtos obtidos e forma de difusão dos conhecimentos gerados, dentre outras. Foram analisados 125 projetos de P&D dos ciclos 2000/2001 a 2004/2005 para a descrição do perfil do programa de P&D da empresa, enquanto que analisou-se os resultados obtidos pelos 52 primeiros projetos dos ciclos 2000/2001 e 2001/2002. Os resultados mostram que, em sua maioria, as pesquisas desenvolvidas são do tipo aplicada, estratégica, de curta duração e baixo custo. As universidades federais são responsáveis pela maior parte (68,8%) dos projetos desenvolvidos junto a empresa. Por outro lado, as equipes de projetos são formadas por uma média de 8,6 pessoas, com 33,1% de doutores e 20,4% dos mestres. Os 52 projetos concluídos renderam um total de 89 produtos, com 30,3% sendo softwares, 24,7% metodologias, 12,4% protótipos e 10,1% processos. Destes, 25,0% estão totalmente aplicados às rotinas da empresa, 27,1% estão parcialmente aplicados e apenas 6,3% são inaplicáveis. Os gerentes de projetos entrevistados classificaram como ótima (42,3%) ou boa (34,6%) as suas experiências de interação com as organizações de pesquisa

This study analyzes the impact of transfer pricing on multinational enterprises' R&D investment decisions. Specifically, I examine the effects of two commonly used contract designs to exchange and develop intangible assets across group affiliates: licensing and cost sharing agreements. Whilst serving as a tool to allocate taxable income between group affiliates, the economic implications of licensing and cost sharing agreements differ. Whereas licensing agreements provide for a sharing rule on the intangible's profits, cost sharing agreements on the other hand provide a sharing rule on R&D development costs. This difference matters when firms simultaneously use internal transfer prices to allocate taxable income and provide local management with sufficient investment incentives. Using a multiple-agent, moral hazard investment framework I model a multinational firm with comparable group affiliates in two countries that delegates the R&D investment decision to a local risk and effort averse affiliate manager. The results suggest that the optimal contract not only depends on available tax benefits, but also on R&D investment and manager specific characteristics. A licensing agreement provides management with larger incentives to invest in R&D mitigating agency concerns associated with R&D. On the other hand, using a cost sharing agreement the firm can cater different risk preferences among managers potentially increasing investment. The arm's length principle however may distort an efficient allocation of R&D costs when using a cost sharing agreement. / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the valuation of intangible assets in different financial environments. Value relevance of intangible investments has been largely recognized by indicating their close relatedness on future operating performance and valuation of firms. The financial environment of the country (market- or bank-based) is also found to be an important determinant of the economic performance of the firm. This thesis combines these two important issues by examining how a country's financial system affect the firm's investments and valuation of intangible assets. The study consists of four essays and an introductory section. Essay I investigates the firm's investments in human capital in different legal- and financial environments. The results of this study indicate that human capital asset constitutes an essential part of the market value of firms in all our sample countries. The results also suggest that firms make investments in human capital to increase their innovation capabilities and to improve their future benefits. Essay II investigates the firm's investments in R&D capital in different financial systems. The common result concerning both financial system is that the estimated R&D capital constitutes a great part of the firm's unrecorded goodwill. The main finding of the study is that the effects of the firm's past profitability and growth on its estimated R&D capital are stronger in bank-based than market-based financial systems. This result emphasizes the role of bank-based financing over market-based financing in the efficiency of resource allocation to R&D investments. Essay III investigates the stock market's response to the firm's R&D investments in different financial systems by taking account of lead-lag structure between the firm's R&D investments and its market value. The main result of the study is that the stock markets' response to current R&D investments varies between different financial systems with regards to the point in time against which the stock market response is examined. This study suggests that information disclosure policies, level of stock-market expectations and attitude towards risk are the most important potential factors that explain the valuation differences of R&D between market- and bank-based financial systems. Essay IV investigates the effect's of a country's financial system on current R&D investments and the future profitability of the firm. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows: the firm's current R&D investments are more strongly associated with the level of future firm profitability in bank-based than market-based financial system whereas current R&D investments are more strongly associated with the uncertainty of future firm profitability in market-based than bank-based financial system. The findings of this study suggest that differences in the valuation of R&D between market-based and bank-based financial systems mainly depends on the information asymmetry between the firm and its investors.

Abstract The main difficulty in the usability evaluation of a product concept or a prototype is that it is very difficult to take reliably into account many different characteristics or attributes, which cannot be measured with the same unit, scale or instrument. Secondly, evaluation always involves some uncertainty. One can never be really sure that all the essential aspects that affect the final user emphasis are taken into consideration. This uncertainty can be decreased by involving diverse people in the evaluation process during R&D or, before the final decision, by elaborating the best ideas to a level at which they can be really used on a pilot scale in the field. Most often, though, the latter takes too much time and would result in many other problems. Evaluation can possibly be best enhanced by using enough involved people, i.e. various experts and especially end-users, who need or use the product in question. A key ingredient to the success of product development, in addition to ergonomic knowledge, is often thought to be active involvement of the intended product users by (1) measuring user-product interaction and (2) participation in design decisions. When a potential end-user experiments with the product, both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods can be used. This thesis shows some methodological possibilities of evaluation, especially through simulation. It also describes in detail the practical phases of the experiments. For example, a lot of development was needed to find out how to communicate product alternatives and their concepts to (elderly) users. And most importantly, this thesis aims to give evidence of how the procedure called experimental ergonomic evaluation (EEE) should be feasibly implemented and statistically confirmed for significance and consistency. A special focus in the experiments was placed on elderly end-users. Since the number of elderly citizens is increasing, there is a need for products to help the elderly live independently at their homes. Studying and understanding how users accomplish their tasks helps to identify their needs and to formulate implications for the design of technology to satisfy those needs. Thus, user studies conducted before beginning to design a new technology provide a proactive way of involving users in the design process. The first prototypes then enable usability studies, such as user trials. With an emphasis on usability engineering, trials can be developed into more feasible EEE procedures for industrial companies. All the developed and applied EEE procedures were based on a user-centred approach with different user trial types (N = 15). The users as subjects (N = 264) performed as real tasks as possible and, based on their perceptions during the trials, gave their preferences or scored certain variables. The subjects were also observed and measured by the researcher. The products or other technologies in the trials comprised a total of 9 cases, ranging from "low-tech" steps and chairs to "high-tech" information and communication technology (ICT) applications. The perceived preference and observed performance measures were then combined. Different methods are needed simultaneously to make the results more accurate. The present EEE procedures proved to be cost-effective, efficient and sufficiently valid at least in a research context. The EEE procedures ranged from subjective estimations, such as rating and ranking, to more complex multi-criteria methods that can be used to facilitate decision-making, such as conjoint analysis, Mitchell's paired comparison and use-value analysis. Objective evaluation was also used, including measurement of products and users as well various observations. Both experts and end-users (subjects) had their own important roles in the experiment. Based on this study, EEE procedures are easy to implement in industry for routine usability testing in the course of product development. EEE with its wide coverage yields more universal and absolute usability values, not only ones based on direct benchmarking.

Dans un contexte de mise en place des pôles de compétitivité et des dernières lois sur la décentralisation (2004 et 2013), les Régions ont vu leurs compétences renforcées en matière de développement économique et d’innovation, et se sont impliquées plus massivement dans la conduite de politiques scientifiques et technologiques (S&T). Ainsi, ce travail a pour but d’interroger l’efficacité des politiques S&T régionales. En effet, la légitimé de l’échelon régional dans la politique de S&T peut être remise en question dès lors que la production et l’exploitation de la technologie tendent à être de plus en plus globalisées. Cette légitimité régionale peut être abordée sous l’angle des Systèmes Régionaux d’Innovation (SRI). En considérant l’échelon régional comme prégnant, notamment au niveau des politiques économiques et technologiques, les SRI permettent d’analyser les liens entre science, industrie et gouvernance au niveau local. Face à ces enjeux, la Région Aquitaine, qui a augmenté son budget consacré à sa politique de S&T de manière considérable depuis ces dix dernières années, se pose des questions. Elle est aujourd’hui la Région française dont le budget S&T par habitant est le plus élevé. C’est pourquoi celle-ci veut savoir si sa politique de S&T est efficace. Cet effort conséquent en termes de S&T, est-il nécessaire/justifié ? Quelle est la cohérence de la politique régionale au cours du temps ? Ces questions sont appréhendées en utilisant les outils de l’évaluation. Un travail de formalisation des objectifs poursuivis et des moyens mis en oeuvre par la Région est mené, tout en développant une approche comparative par rapport à d’autres expériences régionales en France. / In the context of setting up clusters and the latest laws on decentralization (2004 and 2013), the regions saw their skills for economic development and innovation increased. That’s why they are more involved in the conduct of science and technology policies. Thus, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of science and technology policies (S&T) at the regional level. Indeed, the legitimacy of this level in the S&T policy could be challenged since the production of technology tend to be more and more globalized. Moreover, this regional legitimacy can be approached from the perspective of regional innovation systems (RIS), which constitute a theoretical framework suitable for the treatment of this issue. Considering the importance of regional level, especially in economic and technological policies, SRI is a framework which aims to analyze the links between science, industry and local governance. Faced to these challenges, the Aquitaine Region asks itself questions. Indeed, it has increased its S&T budget since the last ten years and today is the French region with the highest S&T budget per capita. Now the Aquitaine Region wants to know how effective its S&T policy is. Is this effort in terms of S&T necessary or justified? What is the consistency of regional policy over time? What is the result of such a policy a socio-economic point of view? These issues will be studied using of evaluation’s tools. Furthermore, we offer to synthetize the objectives of S&T and the means used by the Region and we develop a comparative approach to other regional experiences on differents dimensions of innovation.

This thesis presents the Knowledge Management Information Tool (KM-IT) Vendor Management Web Service and its reliability features. KM-IT is a web-based knowledge management information tool for the deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) user community. The Vendor Management (VM) module provides a directory service for searching D&D vendors. Clients have an increasing need to integrate and display the vendor information in their own applications. As such, this study proposes Web Services technology to provide VM access to clients. Moreover, when clients access information, particularly via mobile applications, they can encounter different failures that may occur on the network or the server. Such problems require fault tolerance in the VM Service. This study examines various reliability standards and selects the WS-ReliableMessaging standard as the best-suited approach to implement the reliability features for the VM Service. Implementation evaluation confirms that the KM-IT VM Service can effectively tolerate different types of failures.

This thesis describes how Innovation Management Consultants (IMCs) can promote changes in R&D/marketing relationships. The research was motivated by the scarce number of studies about the impact of IMCs on organisational relationships in general, and particularly on R&D and marketing relationships. This thesis contributes to knowledge in four strands of literature: technology management, organisational change, management consulting and conflict studies. Firstly, its main contribution is to technology management literature. Empirical evidence indicates that IMCs can modify the relationship between R&D and marketing functions, even though they are not hired explicitly for that purpose. Nonetheless, the main impact on the relationship is perceived at the personal level and it is dependent on the format of the intervention process. Additionally, the changes in the R&D/marketing relationship and its continuity seem to be conditional upon contextual factors such as specific company and consultant characteristics, as well as the nature of the consultant-client relationship. Secondly, this study has added to scholarly knowledge in organisational change by providing empirical evidence that IMCs advocate for the same dynamics used by Organisational Development (OD) consultants. The results highlight the importance of a facilitative-participative approach and organisational learning to generate change. The results suggest that certain OD theories such as sociotechnical systems theories and Lewin’s model can be used to explain the effect of IMCs on intra-organisational relationships. Thirdly, this research also augments knowledge about IMCs in management consulting literature because it provides evidence about the activities conducted by IMCs and their unexpected effects within client organisations. This addresses a gap identified in the literature, since the contributions of this type of Management Consultant (MC) have not been significantly investigated and the focus of previous studies has been on expected results. Finally, this research contributes to the area of conflict studies, particularly to the intersection between R&D/marketing integration and conflict, since it provides certain evidence about some IMCs’ mediation techniques that can be used to diminish conflict between different areas within an organisation. The research followed an inductive approach to understanding the changes that IMCs can promote in R&D/marketing relationships in large firms. The research is based on empirical evidence gathered through twelve case studies, feedback interviews and a small-scale survey. A framework describing the possible changes that IMCs can promote in the R&D/Marketing relationship was then built from grounded, within-case, and cross-case analysis. Lastly, in order to verify the observations obtained during the case studies, as well as the pertinence of the proposed framework, a set of eight feedback interviews with company participants and IMCs were carried out, as well as a small-scale survey. The results of these verification activities indicate that the proposed framework is reasonably complete and its elements are coherent.