This thesis examines the learning dynamics underpinning the resurgence of Canada's office furniture manufacturing sector, which underwent dramatic growth following its near collapse in the wake of the North American trade liberalization beginning in the late 1980s. It investigates the role that design and quality have played in prompting a move up-market and enhancing the sector's competitiveness. It also focuses on other leaning processes that drive economic growth, looking at attempts to transfer workplace practices from Continental Europe to Canada, as well as the institutional obstacles that shape and constrain these processes. Finally, it examines how furniture firms learn from their customers, and the key role played by market intermediaries such as sales agents, dealers, interior designers, and architects in linking producers with consumers as well as influencing the final furniture product. The learned behaviour hypothesis that is central to this thesis suggests that globally competitive firms operating in a Canadian institutional context prosper by learning how to produce (i.e. industrial practices and processes) and what to produce (i.e. design-intensive, high quality products) from the above sources that are both internal and external to the manufacturing firm. The scope of research considers the social and organizational practices through which manufacturing knowledge is integrated into innovation processes, as well as their dynamics, spatiality and temporality, the institutional forces that shape the skills, training, tenure and design dimensions of a high performance workplace, and the mechanisms and conditions that mediate the transfer of manufacturing knowledge at a distance. The empirical analysis entails a mixed-methods approach including a survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with industry experts. The analysis contributes to core debates in economic geography and the social sciences concerning the role of proximity and distance in innovative production, and the structure / agency debate. In summary, it finds that economic growth in the office furniture sector in Canada is dependent upon not only local knowledge networks and flows but also global sources of innovation and competitive advantage. It also advances an agency-centered institutionalist economic geography by showing that institutions interact in complex ways with the decision-making of economic actors to shape local labour dynamics and the behaviour of firms.

Management of knowledge involved in the new product development (NPD) projects is critical to the success of firms competing in environments that require rapid innovation. Unfortunately, many firms lack an understanding of how to develop knowledge management (KM) strategies that drive successful outcomes. In this thesis I develop a rich and multifaceted understanding of how KM strategies drive successful NPD outcomes. I examine KM strategies for NPD at two different decision making levels. First, I consider the how the manager of a single NPD project should pursue knowledge acquisition for its product and process design teams and knowledge transfer between the teams over time throughout the development project. The ability to develop and integrate knowledge drives the net revenue earned at the product release time. I show that two different dynamic KM strategies arise: a delay strategy and a front-loading strategy. I characterize drivers of each strategy and the drivers of the market entry time strategy. In contrast to the deterministic approach above, I introduce a stochastic model. The manager of a single NPD project maximizes expected net revenue which reflects the effectiveness of product and process development. I consider the effect of rework that occurs as a result of the KM activities. Although manager's strategies for knowledge creation satisfy either the delay or front-loading strategy the drivers of each strategy in this model are substantially different from those in the first model reflecting the stochastic nature of the project and the effect of rework. In a third model, I consider the strategic level question of how a firm engages in relationships with its competitor regarding the sharing or transfer of knowledge resources for NPD. I consider two cooperative mechanisms: knowledge transfer when both firms ultimately enter the market separately as competitors versus knowledge sharing when both firms enter the market together following the joint development of a new product. In this thesis, I develop the KM strategies followed by the firms for each cooperation mechanism. In addition, I analyze the impact of firm and market characteristics on firms decision to whether to cooperate or not, and other KM decisions.

Educational services have become Australia's third largest export industry. Onshore delivery of higher education has been a major export for many years, and in recent years offshore delivery of vocational education and training has grown to become a major part of this industry. Different Australian educational institutions are involved in delivery of Australian VET programs in a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Because of the strong demand for skills in an increasingly interconnected world, this growing industry, which at an international level encompasses a diverse range of institutions, training delivery methods and management and administrative arrangements, is increasingly directing its attention towards globalising its regulatory and training approaches. The aim of this research is to investigate the process of adapting Training Packages and the Australian Quality Training Framework, the two main instruments of regulation in the Australian skill formation system, for an international audience. This thesis will examine what process of adaptation is involved when the Australian VET approaches are used as a model to develop skills formation overseas. Factors influencing the forms taken by this regulatory system in a global context will be studied through investigating the international activities of various Australian sectors in implementation of VET approaches in non-Australian systems. Two propositions underpin this key question. First is that the Australian VET system is primarily a regulatory system, which means that the export of these regulations needs to be accounted for. Secondly, the Australian VET system has been designed for Australian industrial and cultural conditions and adjustments are necessary in the regulations themselves, host country regulat ory practice, or both for Training Packages to work in these non-Australian cultural contexts.

Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This research aims to present a discussion of the relevant literature with regard to the relationship between organizational learning orientation, knowledge transfer and ERP implementations with the purpose of determining whether or not a learning orientation is an antecedent to knowledge transfer in ERP implementations, and could be added to the critical success factors for ERP implementations. The research strategy selected for this study is a conceptual review. The rationale for using this strategy was to gain an in-depth understanding of the available literature. Thereafter this information was structured to enable solving the problems of identifying the barriers that impact the creation of a learning organization. It was also determined whether there are learning activities and initiatives that foster a learning orientation and whether there are knowledge transfer barriers that prevent the knowledge from being transferred even if the organization has a learning orientation. The study identified that the literature around organizational learning, knowledge transfer and ERPs was filled with constructs regarding positive correlations between learning, knowledge transfer and technology implementations. However, the review could not conclusively identify any strong correlation to support organizational learning as an antecedent to knowledge transfer in an ERP implementation.

This thesis explores the scope for the transfer and integration of human resources management (HRM) knowledge to provide the basis for the development of more productive and efficient supply chains, in the specific case of the aftermarket distribution channels of multinational companies in the automotive industry in China. Most studies of human resources management, supply chain management, and knowledge transfer have focused on internal transfer within multinational companies and there has been more limited research on the transfer of such knowledge across organisations in the supply chain, particularly in relation to distribution channels. Thus the starting point for the research was to understand the preconditions, mechanisms and effects on the distribution supply chain of the transfer and integration of HRM knowledge. To explore these issues the thesis compares and contrasts a poorly performing supply chain (that is Company J's supply chain) with two more successful supply chains in the automotive aftersales market (that is those of Company M and Company S). The aim was to identify whether the poorly performing supply chain could learn from the other two cases through a detailed exploration of the motivators and mediators that facilitate or hinder processes of HRM transfer and integration, and the outcomes of these processes on the performance of the supply chains and the manufacturers and distributors within the supply chains. A qualitative research approach was utilised. Data was gathered through one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with senior-level management, mid-level management, and frontline staff from the manufacturers and wholesale distributors in the three automotive aftermarket distribution channels and analysed using computer-assisted coding software, NVivo. In line with the extant literature, the thesis findings support the proposition that a relational supply chain network based on trust facilitates HRM knowledge transfer and integration, and provides a basis for competitive advantage in the supply chain. At the same time the findings suggest some important extensions to current knowledge and understanding of the processes and impact of HRM knowledge transfer. Firstly the research found that consideration should be given to recategorising the classic division between tacit and explicit knowledge with respect to HRM into fundamental and differential categories, in order to more clearly differentiate the type of strategic HRM knowledge transfer that could provide the basis for competitive advantage. Likewise the study found that it is not the mechanism of transfer- whether through systems or by inter-person channels- that should be the criteria to categorise knowledge, as a blended approach involving both types of transfer mechanisms was associated with better transfer effectiveness. Third the type of HRM to be transferred needs to fit the specific needs of distributors within the supply chain; in practice the best fit for this part of the supply chain can be considered a mix of paternalistic and transaction HRM, rather than the so-called 'best' practice HRM. Finally although there was potential in principle for the underperforming supply chain to learn from the experiences and practices of the higher performing supply chains, the extent to which Company J was likely to be able to emulate the more successful chains was constrained by significant internal barriers to learning (for example the pressure for short-term gains and the time needed to build trust, the lack of internal HRM expertise and the lack of local decision-making authority). However, an even more major constraint on the learning process came from the dynamic changes in the aftermarket distribution system that had the potential even to disrupt the trust-based partnerships in the exemplar supply chains. Thus the scope for applying the lessons from past practice, which has been the major focus of the comparative investigation of the three supply chains, may be limited by both the variations in internal conditions and by the fact that the key challenges for future development may be different from those faced in the automotive aftersales market in the past.

Software development has become a cognitive and collaborative knowledge-based endeavor where developers and organizations, faced with a variety of challenges and an increased demand for extensive knowledge support, push the boundaries of existing tools and work practices. Researchers and industry professionals have spent years studying collaborative work and communication media, however, the landscape of social media is rapidly changing. Thus, instead of trying to model the use of specific technologies and communication media, I seek to model the knowledge-building process itself. Doing so will not only allow us to understand specific tool and communication media use, but whole ecosystems of technologies and their impact on software development and knowledge work, revealing aspects not only unique to specific tools, but also aspects about the combination of technologies. In this dissertation, I describe the empirical studies I conducted aimed to understand social and communication media use in software development and knowledge curation within developer communities. An important part of the thesis is an additional qualitative meta-synthesis of these studies. My meta-analysis has led to a model of software development as a knowledge building process, and a theoretical framework: I describe this newly formed framework and how it is grounded in empirical work, and demonstrate how my primary studies led to its creation. My conceptualization of knowledge building withing software development and the proposed framework provide the research community with the means to pursue a deeper understanding of software development and contemporary knowledge work. I believe that this framework can serve as a basis for a theory of knowledge building in software development, shedding light on knowledge flow, knowledge productivity, and knowledge management. / Graduate

Bakgrund: Managementkonsultbranschen har de senaste 40 åren växt kraftigt och managementkonsultens roll i organisationer tar allt större plats. Det har genererat mycket forskning kring inköp av managementkonsulter, men forskning kring utvärderingens plats i organisationers konsultanvändning är fortfarande bristande. Utvärderingar av komplexa tjänster har tidigare setts som formella processer, men det finns indikationer på att den informella utvärderingen tar mer plats i organisationer än någonsin. Idag är marknader och industrier kompetensbaserade, varpå det bör finnas intresse inom organisationer att ständigt sträva mot förbättrad prestation. Organisationer bör fokusera på kontinuerligt lärande i organisationens alla delar, vilket kanske kan stimuleras av konsultanvändning, genom utvärdering. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om hur organisationer utvärderar managementkonsultens arbete och på vilket sätt utvärderingen bidrar till det organisatoriska lärandet. Metod: Studien baseras på tre fallföretag som använder managementkonsulter i sin dagliga verksamhet. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär, där data är samlad genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med inköpare och projektledare. Slutsats: Studien påvisar tre typer av utvärdering som inkluderas i organisationers konsultanvändning, den informella utvärderingen, den individuella utvärderingen samt den projektbaserade utvärderingen. Studien är bland de första av sitt slag som konstaterar den informella utvärderingens förekomst i organisationer. Vidare kan det konstateras att utvärderingen direkt kan gynna organisationers lärande, främst då information kodas och sprids i interna nätverk genom individuell utvärdering. Det kan även konstateras att lean har en negativ inverkan på lärandet genom utvärdering, då organisationer som är lean ofta väljer att inte spara utvärderingsrelaterad information. / Background: The use of Management Consultants has increased during the past 40 years and is now more common in organisations. This has resulted in much research regarding the purchasing processes of Management Consultants, but less regarding how organsiations evaluate these services. Evaluation of complex services has previously been categorised as a formal process, but today, there are indications that informal evaluations are more and more common. Moreover, industries today are highly influenced by the possession of knowledge, why organisations should find interest in continuously improved performance. Organisations should therefore focus on general continuous learning, which could be stimulated by evaluations through the use of Management Consultants. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge regarding how organisations evaluate the work of management consultants and how the evaluation can contribute to organisational learning. Methodology: This study concerns three cases, three organisations that include management consultants in their daily operations. This is a qualitative study, where data was collected through semi-structured interviews with both procurement managers and project managers. Conclusions: This study argues for three evaluation strategies, included in organisational use of Management Consultants, the informal evaluation, the individual evaluation and the project-based evaluation. The study is among the first to state the presence of informal evaluations in organisations. Moreover, the study argues that evaluations can favour organisational learning, principally when information from individual evaluations are crystalised and spread through organisation’s internal networks. It can be further noted that lean production can influence learning through evaluations on a negative note, since organisations who use lean often choose not to save information related to evaluations.

Title: Beach time and knowledge management – a comparative case study on the impact of beach time on IT-consulting firms’ knowledge management Background: The consulting industry has a cyclic nature, where the consultant enters and exit projects. The time between projects is called downtime (or beach time) and contractors show three approaches to this downtime: minimizing, embracing and scheduling. Consultants sell their knowledge and is in constant need of developing it. Downtime enables time for competence development. Downtime is however a rather unresearched subject and therefore there is a knowledge gap on its effect on knowledge management. Aim: The aim is to increase the understanding beach time’s impact on knowledge management. Methodology: This study is qualitative and has been conducted through a comparative case study, where interviews have been used as a method for data collection. In total, three firms within the IT-consulting industry participated in the study, resulting in seven respondents. Conclusion: The study shows that there is an additional approach to downtime and that swedish IT-consulting firms have a combination of the four identified approaches. The firms of the study have different combinations of approaches to downtime but they have in common that they all try to minimize downtime. Firms working closely with softwares show more of a scheduling approach. Firms that do not have full occupancy on their consultants can have a continuous competence development during work hours and need less planning. The study also shows that downtime is a problem for the consulting firms since the length of the downtime affects the consultant’s motivation. / Titel: Ställtid och kunskapshantering – en komparativ fallstudie om ställtidens påverkan på IT-konsultföretags kunskapshantering Inledning: Konsultbranschen har en cyklisk karaktär där konsulten går in och ut ur uppdrag. Tiden mellan uppdrag benämner vi ställtid och fristående konsulter har tre förhållningssätt till denna ställtid: minimerande, inplanerande och anammande. Konsulter säljer sin kunskap och behöver ständigt arbeta med dess förnyelse. Ställtid frigör tid för kompetensutveckling. Ställtid är dock ett ämne som väldigt få har forskat om, och därför saknas kunskap om dess påverkan på kunskapshantering. Syfte: Syftet är att öka förståelsen om ställtidens betydelse för kunskapshantering. Metod: Studien är kvalitativ och har genomförts genom en komparativ flerfallsstudie, där intervjuer har varit den datainsamlingsmetod som har använts. Totalt tre företag inom IT-konsultbranschen har deltagit i studien, vilket resulterar i att studien har sju respondenter. Slutsats: Studien visar att det finns ytterligare ett förhållningssätt till ställtid och att de studerade företagen har en kombination av de fyra identifierade förhållningssätten. Företagen i studien har olika kombinationer av förhållningssätt men gemensamt är att de alla försöker undvika ställtid. Företag som arbetar med en specifik programvara visar på ett mer inplanerande förhållningssätt. Företag som inte har full beläggning på sina konsulter kan ha en kontinuerlig kompetensutveckling under arbetstid och behöver mindre planering. Studien visar även att ställtiden är ett problem för konsultföretagen då ställtidens längd påverkar konsulternas motivation.

O presente estudo tem como tema central a avaliação de impacto da Pós-graduação no trabalho e o suporte à transferência de aprendizagem, referente aos cursos de Mestrado e Doutorado, realizados pelos servidores do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq, com apoio institucional e concluídos no período de 2010 a 2015. A pesquisa consiste na aplicação de três variáveis do Modelo Integrado de Avaliação de Treinamento no Trabalho – IMPACT, proposto por Abbad (1999): Características da Clientela, Impacto de Treinamento no Trabalho e Suporte à Transferência de Aprendizagem. A pesquisa aconteceu em três momentos: revisão da literatura referente ao tema, elaboração e aplicação do questionário e análise dos resultados. O questionário foi adaptado para esta avaliação a partir do modelo, já validado, de Abbad (1999) e Sallorenzo (2001) e composto por trinta e três itens, que se encontram dispostos em duas partes: Impacto em Amplitude de Treinamento no Trabalho com vinte itens e Suporte à Transferência de Aprendizagem com treze itens, todos associados a uma escala do tipo Likert com frequência de “1 a 5 pontos”. A população da pesquisa foi de treze servidores e houve resposta de 100% da mesma. / This study is focused on the assessment of Graduate studies’ impact at work and the learning transfer support, referring to the Master's and PhD courses, performed by the employees of National Scientific and Technological Development Council – CNPq, with institutional support and completed in the period from 2010 to 2015. The research involves the application of three variables of the Integrated Model of Training at Work Evaluation - IMPACT, proposed by Abbad (1999): Customer´s Characteristics, Training Impact at Work and Learning Transfer Support. The research took place in three moments: literature review related to the theme, design and implementation of the questionnaire and analysis of outcomes. The questionnaire was adapted for this assessment from the model, already validated, of Abbad (1999) and Sallorenzo (2001) and consists of thirty-three items, which are arranged in two parts: Training Range Impact at Work with twenty items and Learning Transfer Support with thirteen items, all associated with a Likert scale with frequency of "1 to 5 points." The research population was thirteen employees and there was a 100% response rate.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2017-08-31T11:15:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7039509 bytes, checksum: 6bd8dfb94a5f52472cd2cf2e9634b966 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2017-08-31T11:58:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7039509 bytes, checksum: 6bd8dfb94a5f52472cd2cf2e9634b966 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2017-08-31T12:00:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7039509 bytes, checksum: 6bd8dfb94a5f52472cd2cf2e9634b966 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-31T12:00:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7039509 bytes, checksum: 6bd8dfb94a5f52472cd2cf2e9634b966 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This doctoral thesis introduces the origins of marketing education in Brazil. It is a historical work that relied on bibliographical researches and document analyses conducted at libraries, museums and teaching institutions in England, Germany, and Brazil; in addition, Brazilian scholars were interviewed. We preserved the chronology and the chain of events, and we set the research objectives as per the context of English, German and American practices and teaching, which formatted the marketing course exported to Brazil. We argument that marketing education in Brazil is the result of a historical process originating in Europe and structured and leveraged by the US business model, which was exported to Brazil in the first half of the 20th century. Based on such scenario, we defend that the US influence and the construction of the marketing course and marketing-related contents in Brazil were first experienced in the city of São Paulo, which was going through full economic, industrial and commercial development, and had the relevant capacity to form opinions around the country. The US influence and the marketing course in the city of São Paulo materialized, at first, in some high-school and vocational institutions as well as the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP), and solidified – in the higher education context – at EAESP. In the 1950s, EAESP went through a vast process of transferring marketing management concepts through Michigan State University professors, teaching methods and marketing literature based on the managerial school, which set the standards to other Brazilian Higher Education Institutions. We conclude that our marketing education is part of a family tree that mixes together English market practice, German methodology, and US Business Schools management. This historical legacy, absorbed mainly by EAESP, led the teaching of marketing towards the managerial model, disregarding other marketing frameworks. / Esta tese apresenta as origens da educação em marketing no Brasil. Trata-se de um trabalho histórico baseado em pesquisas bibliográficas e análises documentais realizadas em bibliotecas, museus e instituições de ensino na Inglaterra, na Alemanha e no Brasil. Em complemento, foram realizadas entrevistas com acadêmicos brasileiros. Preservamos a cronologia e o encadeamento dos acontecimentos e delimitamos os objetivos da pesquisa ao contexto das práticas e do ensino inglês, alemão e estadunidense que formataram a disciplina de marketing exportada para o Brasil. Argumentamos que a educação em marketing no Brasil é resultado de um processo histórico de origem europeia, estruturada e impulsionada pelo modelo business dos Estados Unidos, o qual foi exportado para o nosso país na primeira metade do século XX. A partir deste cenário, defendemos que a influência estadunidense e a construção da disciplina e dos conteúdos relacionados ao marketing no Brasil foram recepcionadas pela cidade de São Paulo que se encontrava em pleno desenvolvimento econômico, industrial e comercial, e detinha uma relevante capacidade de formar opinião dentro do país. O percurso da influência estadunidense e da disciplina de marketing na capital paulista materializou-se, inicialmente, em algumas instituições de nível médio e técnico e no MASP, e foram sedimentadas, em nível superior, pela EAESP. Na década de 1950, a EAESP vivenciou um amplo processo de transferência dos conceitos gerencialistas de marketing, através dos docentes da Michigan State University, dos métodos de ensino e da literatura de marketing baseada na managerial school, credenciando-a como referência para outras IES brasileiras. Concluímos que a nossa educação em marketing faz parte de uma árvore genealógica plasmada à luz das práticas de mercado inglesas, da metodologia alemã e do management das Escolas de Negócios estadunidenses. Esse legado histórico, absolvido principalmente pela EAESP, enveredou o ensino da disciplina para o modelo gerencialista, desconsiderando outros frameworks de marketing.