Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: China are one the fastest growing major markets in the world. Since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2002 China is officially open for business to the rest of the world. China is both a very lucrative market and a dangerous market to enter for various reasons. Trade fairs are an age old tradition in China and are still a very effective and widely used medium of trade in China. To the new entrant to the market, the trade fair offers a very effective and relatively inexpensive way for promoting your product to a wide and interested audience. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: China is een van die snel groeiende ekonomieë in die wêreld. Sedert sy aansluiting by die Wêreld Handelsorganisasie in 2002 is China amptelik oop vir besigheid vir die res van die wêreld. Om verskeie redes is China 'n baie winsgewende sowel as 'n gevaarlike mark om te betree. Handelskoue is 'n eeue ou tradisie in China en is steeds 'n algemene en baie effektiewe vorm van handel dryf. Vir die nuwe toetreder tot die mark bied die handelskou 'n relatiewe goedkoop manier om sy produk aan 'n wye gehoor bekend te stel.

In 1997, DVD was introduced to the American public, beginning the fastest diffusion of any consumer electronics product in history. In this dissertation, I show how DVD, via favorable conditions in industry, technology, culture, economics, and the regulatory environment, replaced existing home video and computing technologies while transforming home entertainment. I analyze how DVD was successfully developed and commercialized by member firms in the filmed entertainment, consumer electronics, and computing industries from 1994-2002. I demonstrate how a new industry developed around DVD through unprecedented cooperation between these three industries. This study uses trade publications, mainstream press reports, industry data, advertisements, depositions to congress, and published interviews with industry members to analyze a process that has been understudied by scholars. Through the use of these resources, I explore how demand for the technology developed within existing contexts and how myriad forces aligned to enable the emergence of a new disc technology. Furthermore, I demonstrate how DVD reshaped these contexts while transforming the nature and business of filmed content distribution. DVD initiated a new era for digital content distribution. This era was marked by the convergence of three industries, new levels of access to filmed entertainment, mobilized viewing opportunities, the conflation of the computer and the television set, and heightened efforts to protect content through a variety of legal, regulatory, and technological strategies.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Washington University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 311-336).

The relationship people have to electronic devices relys on their passive acceptance rather than an understanding of their functioning – often leaving the users alientated and helpless as their products break. Which qualities do electronic artifacts need to embody in order to be repairable? As opposed to a black-box, the metaphor of a white-box can describe this repairable ideal: A white-box is meant to be opened and allows easy access to all inner parts. It is designed to communicate functions and connections and aids the user in understanding. Therefore, a white-box is designed to allow the consumer to act. How «open» can household electronics be?

Univ., Mercator School of Management, Diss.--Duisburg Essen, 2008.

This thesis describes a pilot study for a new cultural anthropology initiative at Team One, a US-based premium and luxury brand advertising agency. In this study, I explore the role and meaning of technology among a population of affluent individuals in Southern California through diaries and ethnographic interviews conducted in their homes. Using schema theory and design anthropology to inform my theoretical approach, I discuss socioeconomic and cultural factors that shape these participants' notions of affluence and influence their presentation of self through an examination of their technology and proudest possessions. I put forward a theory of conspicuous achievement as a way to describe how the affluent use technology to espouse a merit-based model of affluence. Through this model of affluence, participants strive to align themselves to the virtuous middle-class while ascribing moral value to their consumption practices. Lastly, I provide a typology of meaningful technology artifacts in the affluent home that describes the roles of their most used tech devices and how each type supports conspicuous achievement.