The aim of the research is to test whether an attribution approach from social/organisational psychology can illuminate the problem of women's unequal status in managemenL It has been suggested that within organisations, the process of causal attribution devalues women's performance in two ways. First, women managers compared to men may interpret their own performance less favourably, attributing its cause in ways likely to sustain lower self-confidence and expectations of success. Second, gender may affect superiors' perceptions of the reasons subordinates perform well or badly, tending to be more favourable when the subordinate is male. These perceptions would then negatively affect judgements about women's suitability for promotion. However, the support for the hypothesised gender differences and gender bias in performance attribution is based almost entirely on laboratory studies and student samples. There are numerous reasons to question its generalisability to real-world organisations. The purpose of the thesis is to move research on these issues into applied settings. The research sample was comprised of 180 managers in three diverse organisations: a local health authority, a civil engineering finn and a financial services company. Data was collected via semistructured interviews. A number of relevant hypotheses were tested, concerning 1) the existence of gender differences ancVor bias in attributions for successful and unsuccessful managerial performance and 2) whether the strength of any attributional gender effects differs across organisational settings. The results indicated support for the hypothesis that compared to men, women managers attribute their own successful performance less favourably. There were no gender differences in managers' explanations for their own unsuccessful performance. No support was found for the predicted gender bias in attribution for the performance of subordinates. Nor was there clear support for the hypothesis that the strength of attributional gender effects would be mediated by the sex-typing of organisations. The research findings and their implications for theory, research method and practice am discussed.

This thesis investigates policies and problems of technical change in the German Democratic Republic; a subject which has received little serious attention from Western researchers. The approach is interdisciplinary, and strongly empirical, historical and comparative. Chapter Two attempts to assess the GDR's technological levels and Chapter Three, its industrial R&D effort. Chapters Four to Seven assemble and analyse measures affecting technical change upto 1975. Chapter Eight contains reflections about the GDRIs technological lag with the FRG, about its lead over Soviet civilian industry, and towards a model of technical change. Whilst generally occupying a leading position in Eastern Europe, GDR technology has lagged that of the West and seems to have been especially weak relative to the FRG in progressive branches such as instrument building, electronics, dataprocessing, synthetic fibres and plastics. These branches, at least in the early sixties, were also characterised by low R&D efforts compared with the FRG. Moreover the GDR's total industrial R&D manpower was probably lower than that of the FRG for both 1964 and 1970, and its system of industrial R&D, something of an East-West hybrid. Four broad "policies" are distinguished in the thesis. The first was the system of detailed central planning operative upto 1962. This proved incapable of stimulating rapid technical change; important hindrances being schematism, opposition, bureaucracy and poor coordination in planning; and shortcomings in project selection, the price mechanism and the bonus systems. At most enterprises entertained small cost-saVing projects after the price was set. The second "policy" was the New Economic System. This involved a number of interesting measures aimed at alleviating the above obstacles. Unfortunately it was short-lived. Decisive in its downfall was a third "policy", an offensive strategy launched in 1968 to overtake the "world level" of technology. The strategy was overambitious and involved unrealistic ideas about new technologies; forecasting; the efficacy of large-scale operations; and reorganisation under taut aggregate planning. The fourth "policy" concerned the efforts to link academic science with industry up to 1975. To some extent these efforts were hindered by difficulties of academic manpower and research facilities. The main problem, however, was that each side had very different and not easily reconcilable objectives. Three factors would seem particularly relevant for understanding the GDR's comparative technological sophistication: the strength of market signals, the degree of decentralised decision-making, and the pressure of competition. A~ the same time the thesis argues against oversimplified models of technical change, whether from West or East, and suggests an interpretation based on the different, variable and often conflicting interest groups involved.

The measurement of innovative activity is a critical issue of the analysis of technological change. The first part of this dissertation argues that the standard distinction between producer and user sectors of innovation is a necessary but not sufficient condition to obtain a satisfactory accounting framework of technological change. A further distinction between the subjects (such as firms) and the objects (the innovations themselves) of technological change is needed. An empirical application is provided with a matrix of patents by firms and technological fields which allows to find out "who innovates where" in the Italian economy. Using technological indicators such as R&D. patenting and a survey on 24.000 Italian business units. the second part of the thesis identifies the quantitative characteristics of the Italian innovation system. An international comparison of the technological potential of the country is performed. and it shows that Italy is still lagging behind the most advanced countries in the volume of her technological activities. Her sectoral strengths are to be found in mature technologies while her weaknesses are in fields, such as electronics and information technologies, expected to have a growing impact on future economic development. The industrial organization underlying Italian technological specialization is also considered, showing that the country's fields of excellence are seldom related to the innovative activities of the largest firms. No significant connection emerged between the degree of industries' concentration on the one hand and technological specialization on the other. The sources of innovative activity are- identified, and significant cross-industry and cross-size differences emerged. A taxonomy by industries is presented where concentration ratios, the nature and sources of innovation are taken as distinguishing criteria. This taxonomy, rather than stressing the role of small or large firms, suggests that sectoral differences explain more than it is generally believed in understanding technological change in Italy.

The central aim of this thesis was to examine the dynamics of competence building processes at the firm level in an international sample of companies engaged in the field of optoelectronics. The development of empirical measures to assess the dynamics of competence building is crucially important both for management practice and the modem theory- of the firm. The concept was derived from the notion of firm specific competencies which are closely related to the firm's intangible assets and its accumulated technological bases. The principal argument has been that in the development of technological competence. firms would view a radically new opportunity offered by an emerging new technology such as optoelectronics from different angles, shaped to a large extent by their different technological bases and business interests. Competence building is a painstaking, lengthy arduous process. characterized by uncertainty, trial and error. and requires continuous learning. Several factors affect the rate and direction of competence building, chief among them being: primary markets, top management strategy and the evolution of the R&D organization, management of the linkages between systems, key components and component generic technologies, organizational learning and economies of scope. Two main investigation techniques were employed to support my argument. The first consisted of statistical analysis of bibliometric scientific publications data and US patent data of the firms involved. The second consisted of in-depth interviews with the firms' researchers and R&D managers, who provided data on the historical account of the firms' optoelectronics competence building processes. A novel pioneering technique was developed to measure competencies using the three types of data. The analysis showed that within large firms, variation existed in the scope of competence building depending on the range of prior capabilities. The areas of strength and weakness within optoelectronics could be used to group the firms into three groups of 1, communications driven 2, consumer and industrial electronics driven 3, evenly balanced firms.

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