No description available.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008. / Thesis Advisor(s): Nissen, Mark ; Kamel, Magdi. "December 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on February 5, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-102). Also available in print.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Disp. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2006.

The objectives of the research was to identify how knowledge, learning and reflection is mediated in communities of practice. The overall aim was to base the evidence from the lived experiences of those who are part of the communities of practice under study. The research was undertaken through a qualitative inquiry using a social constructionist perspective. The research was pursued through participative action research in one case study organisation, and through participative observation, or observation in fifteen others. The key findings of this inquiry include six sociological elements which were common to all sixteen organisations. Further, four key knowledge flow processes were consistent across all cases. In total forty-one main findings were identified to the pursued research questions. Two conceptual models of learning and reflection were presented as ways to help understand how knowledge, learning and reflection are mediated in communities of practice. The models can be used at different levels of abstraction and conceptualisation. The study provides original insights into consulting activity within communities of practice, and highlights key themes based upon the lived experiences of the participants in the inquiry.

Literature on firm internationalization has pointed out knowledge and learning as central components in the internationalization process. While much research has emphasized the development of experience in the firm as the main source of new knowledge, this notion has also been challenged. Furthermore, in internationalization literature, most attention has been paid to market entry and far less to growth in the market thereafter. This research addresses how internationalizing firms capture growth opportunities by acquiring new knowledge in foreign markets. The purpose is to describe and explain how internationalizing firms learn about foreign markets by combining various knowledge sources in order to realize growth opportunities in these markets. To address this purpose, data from two steps of data collection is analyzed. The first step contains qualitative focus-group data from seven Swedish firms and aims to describe learning from a combination of knowledge sources, which leads to the development of a typology of learning strategies. The tentative results from the first step are established in the second step, which contains survey data from 144 internationalizing Swedish firms. In addition to validating the typology, data from the second step explains heterogeneous knowledge outcomes based on differences in learning strategies, suggesting that a diversified strategy has the greatest potential for learning. These results indicate that external knowledge matters more than what has been previously recognized. Furthermore, the results show curvilinear effects of knowledge of the local network and international spread on the realization of international growth opportunities. By integrating components from international entrepreneurship, this research may contribute to internationalization-process literature by (1) describing the typology of how internationalizing firms learn in foreign markets, (2) establishing the described types and explaining the knowledge consequences for internationalizing firms, and (3) explaining how this knowledge impacts the ability to realize international opportunities. This chain of components provides the links between learning and growth of the internationalizing firm beyond the initial market entry.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2010.

Thesis (M. Information Science)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 201 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-201). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center