The Swedish newspaper industry was for many years characterized by geographically separated markets. This allowed for open discussions and learning. In addition, economic objectives were often not expressed by the owners of the newspaper companies. This dissertation analyzes two organizations which mirrored these distinctive traits of the industry. The Lindesberg Group (1956-2008) was a secretive group of CEOs. It is described how this group started in a time of crisis to share experiences, how it developed an intricate system of benchmarking, but later transformed into an exclusive personal network with a reputation of power and influence in the media industry. Centertidningar AB (1973-2005) was a group of newspapers owned by the Centre Party. The newspapers were originally acquired to promote a political message, but they soon turned into a profit generator. This dissertation shows that the orientation for profit came from the managers rather than from the owner, and how the managers took complete control from the politicians but made the Party rich. Comparisons to other organizational forms are made, such as the open price associations. Theories of interfirm cooperation and corporate governance are used. An inverse relation between hierarchical integration and open discussions is found. It is shown that many board functions can be replicated by managers. The dissertation is of interest to scholars in business history, media economics, governance, accounting, and organization studies. Christoffer Rydland is a researcher at the Department of Marketing and Strategy (MaST) and EHFF at the Stockholm School of Economics. He is also the illustrator of the cover. A seabird, standing on a small stone, represents the leader's loneliness in the hierarchy. A sea mark on the horizon represents his search for navigation. (Lake Siljan, Midsummer 2009.) / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2013</p>

Este trabalho avalia o estado e a contribuição das cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas para a competitividade de empresas industriais do polo tecnológico de São Carlos, sob a ótica do empreendedor. A contextualização teórica é feita através da revisão bibliográfica dos temas referentes a pequenas empresas, pólos tecnológicos, tecnologia, inovação, competitividade e cooperação universidade-empresa e inter-empresas. Para a avaliação da contribuição das cooperações foram utilizadas as dimensões de competitividade da manufatura mais aceitas na literatura. Foi utilizado o método de estudo de caso, com uma amostra de onze empresas do Polo Tecnológico de São Carlos, composta de dez empresas de pequeno porte e uma de médio porte. Foi aplicado um questionário com o objetivo de obter a percepção dos empreendedores acerca da competitividade de suas empresas, a avaliação que fazem das cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas e também a avaliação dos empreendedores sobre a importância do pólo tecnológico de São Carlos na sustentação e incremento da competitividade de suas empresas. O resultado da pesquisa mostrou que os empreendedores têm dificuldades de entendimento sobre o conceito de competitividade e das dimensões que sustentam a competitividade da manufatura. Mostrou também quais são as dimensões da competitividade mais impactadas pelas cooperações e, que na ótica dos empreendedores, existem diversas barreiras dificultando os processos de cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas. Finaliza propondo algumas ações para minimizar essas barreiras e criar um ambiente mais propício para o incremento da competitividade das empresas. / This work makes an assesment of the contribuition of the university-enterprise cooperation to the competitiveness of industrial enterprises of the technopolis of São Carlos under the standpoint of the entrepreneurs. It was made a review of the concepts of small business, technopolis, technology, innovation, competitiveness and university-enterprise and interfirm cooperation. To estimate the contribuition of the cooperation, it were used the dimensions of the competitiveness of manufacture more accepted in the literature. Through an interview it was applied a questionnaire in order to obtain the assesment of the entrepreneurs make about the competitiveness of their enterprises. In addition it was obtaneid their estimation about the importance of the cooperation process and also their assesment about the importance of the Technopolis of São Carlos to sustain and/or increase the competitiveness of their enterprises. The results showed that the entrepreneurs have difficulties to undestand the concept of competitiveness and the dimensions that support the competitiveness of manufacture. In addition the results showed which are the competitiveness dimensions which receive more impact of the cooperation process and that, from the entrepreneurs'standpoint, there are many barriers to the cooperation process. Finaly it was proposed some actions to minimize these barriers and to create an environment more friendly to the promotion of the cooperation process.

Este trabalho avalia o estado e a contribuição das cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas para a competitividade de empresas industriais do polo tecnológico de São Carlos, sob a ótica do empreendedor. A contextualização teórica é feita através da revisão bibliográfica dos temas referentes a pequenas empresas, pólos tecnológicos, tecnologia, inovação, competitividade e cooperação universidade-empresa e inter-empresas. Para a avaliação da contribuição das cooperações foram utilizadas as dimensões de competitividade da manufatura mais aceitas na literatura. Foi utilizado o método de estudo de caso, com uma amostra de onze empresas do Polo Tecnológico de São Carlos, composta de dez empresas de pequeno porte e uma de médio porte. Foi aplicado um questionário com o objetivo de obter a percepção dos empreendedores acerca da competitividade de suas empresas, a avaliação que fazem das cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas e também a avaliação dos empreendedores sobre a importância do pólo tecnológico de São Carlos na sustentação e incremento da competitividade de suas empresas. O resultado da pesquisa mostrou que os empreendedores têm dificuldades de entendimento sobre o conceito de competitividade e das dimensões que sustentam a competitividade da manufatura. Mostrou também quais são as dimensões da competitividade mais impactadas pelas cooperações e, que na ótica dos empreendedores, existem diversas barreiras dificultando os processos de cooperações universidade-empresa e inter-empresas. Finaliza propondo algumas ações para minimizar essas barreiras e criar um ambiente mais propício para o incremento da competitividade das empresas. / This work makes an assesment of the contribuition of the university-enterprise cooperation to the competitiveness of industrial enterprises of the technopolis of São Carlos under the standpoint of the entrepreneurs. It was made a review of the concepts of small business, technopolis, technology, innovation, competitiveness and university-enterprise and interfirm cooperation. To estimate the contribuition of the cooperation, it were used the dimensions of the competitiveness of manufacture more accepted in the literature. Through an interview it was applied a questionnaire in order to obtain the assesment of the entrepreneurs make about the competitiveness of their enterprises. In addition it was obtaneid their estimation about the importance of the cooperation process and also their assesment about the importance of the Technopolis of São Carlos to sustain and/or increase the competitiveness of their enterprises. The results showed that the entrepreneurs have difficulties to undestand the concept of competitiveness and the dimensions that support the competitiveness of manufacture. In addition the results showed which are the competitiveness dimensions which receive more impact of the cooperation process and that, from the entrepreneurs'standpoint, there are many barriers to the cooperation process. Finaly it was proposed some actions to minimize these barriers and to create an environment more friendly to the promotion of the cooperation process.

Scholars in strategy, economics, and sociology of science and technology have studied technology development as a source of firms’ economic gains as well as institutional changes. Drawing on the extant research of technology and innovation strategy, I investigate the problem of knowledge generation and flows in technology development. Specifically, I explore how firms generate novel technology and develop technological breakthroughs; how knowledge flows between firms affect interfirm cooperation in a knowledge network; and how science and technology programs impact the institutions of knowledge production. In Essay 1 (Chapter 2), I examine the antecedents of knowledge recombination and technological breakthroughs. Conceptualizing a firm’s exploration as a combinatory search of prior new-recombination (an original technology component), I investigate the impacts of prior new-recombination and search boundary (local vs. boundary-spanning) on the characteristics of focal invention. In particular, I theorize and juxtapose the contrasting effects of the boundary of technological search of prior new-recombination on the propensities that the focal invention generates new recombination and becomes a technological breakthrough. Specifically, I hypothesize that, when the technological search involves new recombination in prior inventions, 1) the likelihood of generating new recombination in the focal invention is greatest for a boundary spanning search, smallest for a local search, and intermediate for a hybrid search (which involves both types of search); but 2) the likelihood for the focal invention to become a technological breakthrough is greatest for a local search, smallest for a boundary spanning search, and intermediate for a hybrid search. I find supporting evidence from the analysis of U.S. nanotechnology patents granted between 1980 and 2006. The purpose of Essay 2 (Chapter 3) is to determine the effect of knowledge flows on the formation of interfirm cooperation. By distinguishing codified knowledge flows from tacit knowledge flows, this paper demonstrates that antecedents of interfirm cooperation lie in codified knowledge flows that precede interfirm cooperation. Two properties of asymmetry in directional codified knowledge flows, intensity and uncertainty, underpin this paper’s arguments and empirical tests. The main finding in this study is that intense codified knowledge flows weaken the formation of interfirm cooperation. By mapping dyadic firms to a center and a periphery firm within a knowledge network, I theorize that the uncertainty of directional codified knowledge flows induces the center and the periphery firms to pursue interfirm cooperation differently. The results show that while uncertainty caused by distant technology components in knowledge flows hinders a center firm from pursuing interfirm cooperation, uncertainty stimulates a periphery firm to pursue interfirm cooperation. A statistical analysis performed on a sample of enterprise software firms between 1992 and 2009 supports the hypotheses of this paper. In Essay 3 (Chapter 4), I examine how the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a most recent U.S. government’s science and technology (S&T) program launched in 2000, impacts the nature of university research in nanotechnology. I characterize the NNI as a policy intervention that targets the commercialization of technology and a focused research direction to promote national economic growth. As such, I expect that the NNI has brought about unintended consequences in terms of the direction of university-industry knowledge flows and the characteristics of university research output in nanotechnology. Using the difference-in-differences analysis of the U.S. nanotechnology patents filed between 1996 and 2007, I find that, for the U.S. universities, the NNI has increased knowledge inflows from the industry, diminished the branching-out to novel technologies, reduced the research scope, and decreased the likelihood of technological breakthroughs, as compared to other U.S. and non-U.S. research institutions. The findings suggest that, at least in the case of the NNI, targeted S&T programs of the government may increase the efficiency of university research, but potentially do so at a considerable price.