China’s investments in R&D are forecast to surpass those of the US in 2022, thereby attracting capital, innovation and a large number of returnee managers. In the past eight years alone, the number of returnees has increased five-fold, with the country’s high-tech parks, particularly Beijing’s Z-Park, also known as China’s Silicon Valley or the Silicon Valley of the East, proving considerable attractions. In this context, in which start-ups are vital for economic growth and for the further development of Chinese investments in leading-edge innovation, understanding how the significant cultural differences between returnee and local managers affect management control systems (MCS) is of key importance. Drawing on a survey of more than 200 companies and data from 435 one-to-one interviews, this study investigates the relationship between CEO characteristics, government financial support and MCS sophistication in the context of fast-growing high-tech enterprises in China’s Silicon Valley. The study develops an MCS sophistication index as an aggregate measure of six main factors (the importance of MCS to the firm, system structure, system operations, system completeness, frequency of use and the level of data aggregation), and measures MCS sophistication by 46 individual management control subsystems. The study predicts and verifies a positive relationship between CEO and firm international exposure and between CEO education and the level of MCS sophistication. It also predicts and verifies a positive relationship between government financial support and MCS sophistication in a context in which privately held and managed venture capital and banks provide such support. The study further analyses the interaction effect of government financial support and CEO characteristics on MCS sophistication. Its empirical findings suggest that, despite their cultural differences, neither local nor returnee managers feel the need for better MCS. Only when there is potential access to government funding do returnee managers have better tools to implement more sophisticated MCS than their local counterparts, thus underlining how international work experience provides Chinese managers with the tools, but not the mindset, for superior MCS. Most previous studies focus on listed companies in China, whereas this study constitutes one of the first to focus on start-ups using an extensive array of data. It also contributes to the definition of a more systematic MCS sophistication measure, thus allowing more complete analysis of MCS at the firm level. Improving upon previous studies, the research reported herein also encompasses a large set of CEO characteristics to analyse their interaction with government financial support, thereby contributing to a better understanding of MCS in a key area of China’s future development. / published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Šiandienos visuomenės skiriamasis bruožas - naujovės. Daugelis objektų, reiškinių, procesų sulaukia skirtingo vertinimo, požiūrio ir sampratų. Dabartinę žmogaus orientaciją ir gyvenimą socialiniame pasaulyje lemia kaitos procesai. Keičiasi dvasinis, kultūrinis, technologinis kontekstas. Šiuolaikiniai kaitos procesai neišvengiamai formuoja tam tikras žmogaus savybes, keldami naujus reikalavimus ugdymo organizacijoms, įpareigodami jas keistis ir naudotis naujomis galimybėmis. Edukacinės novacijos ir jų diegimas yra aktualus tyrimų objektas, sulaukiantis nemažo įvairių sričių mokslininkų dėmesio. Šiame kontekste edukacinių novacijų diegimo ir valdymo veikla kelia daugybę tiek teorinio, tiek praktinio pobūdžio klausymų, todėl išryškėja mokslinė problema. Tyrimo objektas – pedagogų požiūris į edukacinių novacijų diegimo valdymą gimnazijoje. Tyrimo tikslas- atskleisti pedagogų požiūrį į edukacinių novacijų diegimo valdymą gimnazijoje. Anketinė pedagogų apklausa vykdoma Mažeikių bei Akmenės rajonų regionuose esančiose gimnazijose. Iš gautų rezultatų galime daryti tokias išvadas: Edukacinių novacijų diegimas ir valdymas labai aktualus ir problematiškas švietimo sistemos procesas, per kurį perimami nauji veiklos būdai, naudojami edukacinėje terpėje. Po nepriklausomybės Lietuvos švietimo sistemoje įvyko reikšmingi struktūriniai ir funkciniai pokyčiai. Pedagogai supranta šių pokyčių neišvengiamumą, pritaria edukacinių novacijų diegimo svarbai mokyklose. Novacijų diegimas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Innovations are an accent of contemporary society. Various objects, phenomena, and processes attain different assessment, attitude and conceptions. Contemporary human orientation and life in social world are determined by processes of change. Psychic, cultural and technological contexts are changing. The contemporary processes of change inevitably form particular human features raising new requirements for educational organizations, obligating them to change and use new possibilities. Educational innovations and their implementation are relevant subjects of research, which attain considerable attention of scientists of various scopes. In this context, the activity of implementation and management of educational innovations raises many questions both of theoretical and practical nature, thus, the problem of research develops. The subject of the research: Attitude of pedagogues towards management of implementation of educational innovations in gymnasium. The aim of the research: to reveal the attitude of pedagogues towards management of implementation of educational innovations in gymnasium. The survey of pedagogues by means of questionnaire is performed in the gymnasiums of Mažeikiai and Akmenė regions. The obtained results allow concluding the following: The implementation and management of educational innovations is a very relevant and problematic process of education system, through which new ways of activity applicable in educational medium are absorbed. After the... [to full text]

This paper examines differences between what voters want from a campaign website and what political parties are actually providing on their campaign websites. A series of focus groups were conducted and the results of those discussions provided insight into what potential voters wanted from a campaign website. Analysis of the Conservative, Liberal, Bloc Quebecois, Green and New Democratic Party campaign websites was then conducted, and the results provided a glimpse at what the political parties were providing during the 2004 federal election campaign. The results of this research show that is a significance imbalance between what the political parties in Canada were providing and what the focus groups mentioned they wanted from a campaign website. The participants wanted more engaging and mobilizing features, while the campaign websites used during the 2004 election lacked these types of features. / vi, 130 leaves ; 29 cm.

The national system of innovation (NSI) is well entrenched within South Africa’s policy discourse, as a conceptual framework for understanding the nature and functioning of the country’s totality of science and technology efforts. The NSI is proving to be a powerful concept in that it permits, for instance, a holistic view of how scientific activity relates to economic performance. However, the NSI is a relatively new construct in the South African context. For this reason, there is a need for a proper understanding of what constitutes the NSI, how it functions and how best to make sense of it. This study undertakes a hermeneutic exploration and assessment of the NSI as a conceptual framework for understanding the structure and performance of knowledge institutions within South Africa. To this end, the NSI concept is unbundled into its constituent elements and then subjected to a deep theoretical analysis in order to critically examine the core ideas behind the constituent terms. Drawing on the writer’s hermeneutic-phenomenological input, the study critically examines the salient features of the NSI as they find expression in various official science and technology policy documents and reports. The elements that make up South Africa’s national system of innovation are identified and their roles defined. An argument is presented as to why, collectively, these elements demonstrate system behaviour. Chaos and complexity frameworks are then employed to shape a conceptual platform to underpin this philosophical enquiry with an ultimate view to developing a robust theoretical framework of the NSI. The study demonstrates the usefulness of chaos and complexity in explaining, for example, the evolution and current organisation of the NSI. Recommendations have been made about how chaos and complexity perspectives could be applied in general and strategic management of the NSI, as well as in research. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This study examines the decision-making activities and communicative activities of two groups participating in a simulated medical emergency activity: the control group (CG) using a traditional whiteboard and the experimental group (EG) using a structured interactive whiteboard. The two groups differ in that the EG has a structured template to annotate and share their arguments with each other. Data analysis of the decision-making activities focused on planning, data collecting, managing, and interpreting patient data. Data analysis of the communicative activities focused on informative, argumentative, elicitative, responsive, and directive acts. In the early stage of decision-making the EG spent significantly more time interpreting the situation and less time managing the patient than the CG; in the later stage the EG spent significantly more time managing the patient but less time interpreting the situation. No significant results were found in communicative activities due to low cell frequencies of the utterances. Qualitative results indicated that shared visualizations can disambiguate and clarify verbal interactions and promote productive argumentation and negotiation activities. Shared cognition facilitates the construction of shared situation models and joint problem spaces which lead to better decision making and problem solving.

How does technological change alter the position and the configuration of groups of producers in an industry? This dissertation examines the transformations in the strategic groups of two manufacturing industries that introduced radically new manufacturing processes. The primary textile market during the period 1958 to 1978 with the introduction of synthetic fibers, introduced a large-scale process production. In the steel industry during the period 1965 to 1985, small-scale process production was introduced with the technology of mini-mills. / The impact of new manufacturing processes on the economic position of producers in the industry has been examined conventionally by the research in strategic management, which used with the set of business strategies developed by the positioning school (i.e., cost leadership, differentiation and focus). Where the cost structure is the determinant of the profitability of a manufacturer, strategic groups are expected to establish their position in terms of scale and scope (Porter 1980, Aaker, 1984, Day, 1990). / Our findings lead us to introduce a different view of the topic by focusing on competition between strategic groups having different centers of gravity. A center of gravity has been defined by Galbraith (1983) as the primary location of a producer in the economic chain of transformation. We found that large-scale and small-scale manufacturing processes have radically different impacts since these processes are intimately associated with specific centers of gravity. / Large-scale manufacturing processes create conditions for the formation of generalists with a strong center of gravity at the upstream primary manufacturing stage engaged in processes such as casting, cutting and forming. This strategic group of generalists establishes a dominant position in the industry in two stages: a cost leadership strategy followed by integrative strategies such as upstream and downstream vertical integration and ultimately, product diversification. Since manufacturers serve the same geographical market, we have a configuration of competing strategic groups. / Small-scale manufacturing processes create conditions for the formation of mid-size producers that we have called semi-generalists and semi-specialists. These strategic groups have a strong center of gravity at the downstream manufacturing stage and are engaged in processes such as as assembling and finishing. They have smaller scale facilities, are not vertically integrated, and sell a narrower product range than generalists. Since they are located closer to industrial centers and dedicated to specific industries, they compete on factors other than price, such as geographic location, product differentiation, service, etc. These strategic groups of medium-size producers challenge the dominance of generalists by restructuring the market into a set of regional markets. The configuration of strategic groups is shaped by generic groups of manufacturers competing in different geographical markets. / The set of business strategies proposed by the positioning school was adequate for large-scale processes. However, this set of strategies was largely inappropriate in a context where small-scale processes are introduced.

In the first essay, I examine value created through external acquisition of nascent technology innovation. External acquisition of new technology is a growing trend in the innovation process, particularly in high technology industries, as firms complement internal efforts with aggressive acquisition programs. Yet, despite its importance, there is little empirical research on the timing of acquisition decisions in high technology environments. I examine the impact of target age on value created for the buyer. Applying an event study methodology to technology acquisitions in the telecommunications industry from 1995 to 2001, empirical evidence supports acquiring early in the face of uncertainty. The equity markets reward the acquisition of younger companies. In sharp contrast to the first essay, the second essay examines the diffusion of negative innovations. While destruction can be creative, certainly not all destruction is creative. Some is just destruction. I examine two fundamentally different paths to information security compromise an opportunistic path and a deliberate path. Through a grounded approach using interviews, observations, and secondary data, I advance a model of the information security compromise process. Using one year of alert data from intrusion detection devices, empirical analysis provides evidence that these paths follow two distinct, but interrelated diffusion patterns. Although distinct, I find empirical evidence that these paths both converge and escalate. Beyond the specific findings in the Internet security context, the study leads to a richer understanding of the diffusion of negative technological innovation. In the third essay, I build on the second essay by examining the effectiveness of reward-based mechanisms in restricting the diffusion of negative innovations. Concerns have been raised that reward-based private infomediaries introduce information leakage which decreases social welfare. Using two years of alert data, I find evidence of their effectiveness despite any leakage which may be occurring. While reward-based disclosures are just as likely to be exploited as non-reward-baed disclosures, exploits from reward-based disclosures are less likely to occur in the first week after disclosure. Further the overall volume of alerts is reduced. This research helps determine the effectiveness of reward mechanisms and provides guidance for security policy makers.

[Truncated abstract] Technological innovation is considered the main contributor to economic growth. The systems of innovation framework aims to examine the causal pathways leading to technological innovation. However, most existing research under this framework, due to theoretical or methodological weaknesses, is unable to validate causal pathways or determinants of innovation. Institutions that guide human interaction within innovation systems are thought to be particularly important. The challenge has been to develop a taxonomy with which to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of the institutional milieu on innovation. This thesis examines medical technological innovation within Australia and provides a basis from which such a taxonomy and other associated measures for systems of innovation have been developed. Medical industries are economically significant in developed countries and are amongst the most profitable worldwide. They use patents extensively to protect their innovations. In this context medical patents are an efficient means of examining the determinants of innovation. Few studies worldwide have explored the commercialisation process from patent to technological innovation and none has examined medical patents specifically. This thesis contains three empirical studies: - a description of Australian medical technology patented in the US between 1984-1999; - a survey of their inventors to examine the commercialisation process and identify the determinants of technological innovation; and - a case study of the commercialisation of an invention arising within an Australian university using qualitative methods. The first study is a population-based descriptive study of all US medical patents granted to Australian resident inventors between 1984 and 1999. During this period 7,835 US patents were granted to Australian resident inventors. Of these, 17% are identified as medical, and the proportion of medical patents rose from 10% to 25% of all Australian patents in the US from 1984 to 1999. The increase is largely due to Australian biotechnology patents, which increased from 10% to 55% of all medical patents during this period. Overall, medical patents are an increasingly significant proportion of Australia’s intellectual property portfolio. The second study is a survey of 402 first-named Australian inventors listed on the 602 medical patents granted in the US in 1984-1994. The aim is to assess their experience and success in commercialising their patented inventions. The correct address was found for 274 inventors of whom 177 (65%) were surveyed with no evidence of a significant response bias. This is the first known study surveying a nationally representative sample of medical inventors listed on patents

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205).