Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1951. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [542]-551).

Thesis (D. Bus. Adm.)--University of Oklahoma, 1971. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 418-441).

Project report (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 104). Also available via the Internet.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (M.B.A.)--Harvard School of Business Administration, 1921.

No description available.

The thesis aims at contributing to clarify broad conjectures on growth, such as, (i) the extent to which growth constitutes an imperative for the firm, and (ii) what leads some firms to enjoy continuing growth and a continued existence, while others, after experiencing continuing growth, end up contracting and decaying. As a result, the thesis seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms fostering and precluding growth, while also identifying challenges and opportunities in managing growth. / The thesis comprises four interrelated essays: (i) Chandler on the growth of the firm---this essay scrutinizes The Visible Hand (Chandler, 1977) seeking to answer the question "What is Chandler's theory on how and why did the modern business enterprise (MBE) appear and grow?" Four processes are identified---MBE formation, MBE development, industry formation, industry development. Their analysis within a process-oriented view (Mohr, 1982) discloses chains of necessary conditions in growth-related processes. Moreover, two growth-related dilemmas are advanced and the firm-industry co-evolution is explored. (ii) Identifying the building blocks of growth dynamics---this essay addresses the question "Which are the basic processes of change that form the dynamics of growth?" Drawing on Mario Bunge's philosophy (1973--1989; 1979), a framework of qualitatively different modes of change is derived. The framework allows the identification of elementary units of the growth dynamics. These comprise the following types: quantitative, qualitative (dialectical), goal-directed, interactional, causal, structural, random. In addition, complex units of growth dynamics made up of combinations of elementary units are also advanced: evolutionary motor of firm growth, co-evolutionary motor of growth relating firm and industry, and different instances of continuing growth motors. (iii) Describing growth trajectories of firms---the question "How can growth trajectories be represented?" is addressed in this essay. An indicator of size, which automatically adjusts for inflationary and deflationary changes in currency value is proposed. This indicator enables the drawing of growth trajectories of firms in the economy over long periods of time. (iv) Growth trajectories of General Electric and Westinghouse: a comparative study---this essay addresses the question "Why do some firms experience continuing growth and continued existence while others decay and disappear?" The growth trajectories of

No description available.

From 1976 to 1992 Portland General Electric (PGE) -- a private utility based in Portland, Oregon -- operated the Trojan Nuclear Plant near Rainier, Oregon, on the bank of the Columbia River. Trojan was the first commercial nuclear facility in the Pacific Northwest and was the largest such facility in U.S. history. From its origins, Trojan was the focus of growing conflict over atomic energy facilities and their environmental effects, risks, and costs. This thesis traces the history of Trojan, including the conditions in which PGE decided to build the plant as well as the changing conditions in which the environmental movement in Oregon worked to impact the operation of Trojan and the development of further atomic energy facilities in the region. Two sets of values, largely endemic to the region, came into conflict in the debate over Trojan: one which valued preservation of vital natural systems over all else, and another that elevated technological progress to supreme importance in achieving the ultimate social good. Supporters of Trojan and anti-nuclear activists both viewed misinformation about nuclear power as one of the central problems in the way that Oregon residents viewed nuclear power. Although there were many loyal supporters of Trojan, particularly in Columbia County, there were also a great number who viewed the technology cautiously. While both PGE and nuclear opponents worked diligently to sway public opinion, many activists did so by attempting to uncover and publicize hidden information about the design and operation of Trojan, and the nuclear fuel cycle in general. This included efforts throughout the plant's lifetime to develop opportunities for intervention in administrative proceedings, government hearings, and other arenas which often discourage citizen involvement. Related to the public debate over Trojan were ongoing operational difficulties and changing economic conditions, which contributed to the decision PGE announced in 1993 that Trojan would be permanently shut down. This study is based primarily on coverage from newspapers and periodicals, new and extant oral history interviews, documents from the personal files of activists, as well as various archival materials associated with PGE, activist groups, and government agencies.

Decision-making in resource allocation can be a complex and daunting task. Often there exist circumstances where there is no clear optimal path to choose, and instead the decision maker must predict future need and allocate accordingly. The application of resource allocation can be seen in many organizations, from military, to high end commercial and political, and even individuals living their daily life. We define resource allocation as follows: the allocation of owner’s assets to further the particular cause of the owner. We propose two ways that computers can assist with the task of resource allocation. Firstly they can provide decision support mechanisms, with alternate strategies for the allocations that might not have been previously considered. Secondly, they can provide training mechanisms to challenge human decision makers in learning better resource allocation strategies. In this research we focus on the latter, and provide the following general hypothesis: Coevolutionary algorithms are an effective mechanism for the creation of a computer player for strategic decision-making games. To address this hypothesis, we present a system that uses coevolution to learn new strategies for the resource allocation game of TEMPO. The game of TEMPO provides a perfect test bed for this research, as it abstracts real-world military resource allocation, and was developed for training Department of Defence personnel. The environment created allows players to practice their strategic decision-making skills, providing an opportunity to analyse and improve their technique. To be truly effective in this task, the computer player the human plays against must be continuously challenging, so the human can steadily improve. In our research the computer player is represented as a fuzzy logic rule base, which allows us investigation into the strategies being created. This provides insight into the ways the coevolution addresses strategic decision-making. Importantly, TEMPO also gives us an abstraction of another component of strategic decision-making that is not directly available in other games – that of intelligence (INTEL) and counter intelligence (CI). When resource allocation is occurring in a competitive circumstance, it is often beneficial to gain insight into what your opponent is doing through intelligence. In turn, an opponent may seek to halt or skew the information being gained. The use of INTEL and CI in TEMPO allows research into the effects this has on the resource allocation process and the coevolved computer player. The development of a computer player for the game of TEMPO gives us endless possibilities of research. In this research, we have focused on the creation a computer player that can provide a fun and challenging environment for humans learning resource allocation strategies. We investigate the addition of memory to a coevolutionary algorithm for strategy creation. This includes mechanisms to select memory individuals for evaluation of coevolutionary individuals. We describe a successful strategy of selection, based on the way a human’s short and long term memory works. We then investigate the use of INTEL and CI in the game of TEMPO, and the way it is used by the coevolved computer players. Through this work, we present a new version of the TEMPO game that more realistically represents INTEL and CI. Finally, we describe a process that uses coevolution to adapt to a human player real-time, to create a tailored game-play experience. This process was tested in a user study, and showed a distinct advantage through the adaptive mechanism. Overall, we have made some important discoveries, and described some limitations that leave future research open. Ultimately, we have shown that our hypothesis is an achievable goal, with an exciting future. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Computer Science, 2008

Portland General Electric has proposed coupling one or more water tanks with two heat pumps in order to perform load-shifting in residential customer heating and cooling applications. By using the water tanks as a thermal storage unit, this project attempts to partially decouple energy consumption from generation to provide peak demand reduction and to better facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy resources. A scoping study was performed to evaluate the potential impact of this project if implemented in single family homes in Portland, Oregon. This study revealed that the system could provide meaningful savings in the cost of electricity to both the customer and utility. Additionally, an optimization algorithm was developed to dictate system operation and to maximize gains to the utility. Evolutionary algorithms were explored in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the algorithm's search in limited computation time. Ultimately, an evolution strategy was selected as the most suitable based on tests run in winter and spring months. A genetic algorithm was then developed to handle fixed-speed heat pump operation for compatibility with an alpha-system prototype that has been developed by the research team.