This thesis has investigated the positive and negative analogical transfer in which we proposed three hypotheses that shed more light on the process of human behaviour in problem solving. We have found that people exhibited both positive and negative analogical transfer in the conducted study. The positive and negative transfer depends on two factor process; search space and type of transformation. This predication was tested in an experiment with four conditions by using matchsticks arithmetic problems. Results have indicated the activation of positive transfer in the problems that share the same search space and type of transformation. On the other hand, negative transfer was activated when the problem search space and type of transformation were different. Results have also indicated, in several comparisons that were made, a simultaneous activation of both positive and negative transfer.

Although project portfolio management (PPM) has been an active research area over the past 50 years, budget allocation models that consider competition are sparse. Firms faced with the project portfolio management problem must not only consider their current projections for the returns from their projects’ target markets, but must also anticipate that these returns can depend significantly on the investment decisions made by their competitors. In this thesis, we develop four Competitive PPM (CPPM) models wherein firms allocate resources between multiple projects and project returns are influenced by the actions taken by competitors. In the first two CPPM problems, we assume all-or-nothing project investment decisions where firms fully commit to either a project targeting a mature or an emerging market and the investment amount is fixed (first model) or a decision variable (second model). In the final two CPPM problems, firms have a fixed budget which they allocate in a continuous manner between two markets (third model) or multiple markets (fourth model). The returns each firm obtains from investments into these markets are assumed to follow an s-shaped curve (first model), the Inada (1963) conditions (third model), or are determined based on linear demand functions (second and fourth model). In the first model, two competing firms consider investing into two separate projects targeting a mature and an emerging market. We assume that firms have symmetric investment opportunities for each market and each firm simultaneously decides whether to invest in the mature or the emerging market. The returns from these markets are assumed to follow an s-shaped curve and depend on both firms’ investment decision. We characterize the variety of interactions that may emerge in symmetric environments (e.g., Prisoner’s Dilemma or Game of Chicken). For each game, we outline the CPPM strategy that can offer higher returns by exploiting first-mover advantages, cooperation opportunities and aggressive choices. We also discuss the market conditions that lead to these games. In the second model, a similar CPPM setting is considered where two symmetric firms face two target markets. However, we assume that demand for the emerging market is uncertain and may expand through firms’ market entry (positive diffusion effects), while demand for the mature market is known with certainty and cannot expand. Firms decide when to invest, in which market to invest, and how much to invest into this market. Our analysis reveals that the existence of multiple investment opportunities may induce firms to delay their investment even in the absence of demand uncertainty, and that high diffusion effects coupled with low demand uncertainty can drive firms to invest early even if both firms could increase returns by delaying their investment. We then study the asymmetric case where firms differ with respect to their costs and diffusion effects and show some counter-intuitive results. In the third CPPM problem, we consider continuous budget allocations and prove that while a monopoly firm bases its budget allocation decision solely on the marginal returns of the two markets, duopoly firms also account for their average returns from the two markets. This drives duopoly firms, in particular the firm with the smaller budget, to invest more heavily into the mature market. We show that as a firm’s budget increases, the share of its budget that is invested into the mature market decreases while its competitor’s investment into the mature market increases. This chapter also explores how changes to the market parameters and market uncertainty affect the resource allocation decision of firms under competition. Considering the special case of identical budgets, we prove that as the number of competing firms increases (with a fixed total budget), firms allocate an even greater share of their budget into the mature market. The fourth model considers a general case where a number of budget-constrained firms engage in production decisions for multiple markets under competition. Each firm decides how much to produce for each market, subject to its budget constraint. We prove that firms produce greater quantities for markets with higher than average base demand and that these quantities are increasing in the number of competitors (assuming identical production capacities). With asymmetric production capacities, we numerically illustrate how firms with large production capacities may, instead, increase production into lower than average base demand markets. Furthermore, we characterize the increase in return firms can expect from budget increases and conjecture that if some markets are not served by all firms, the remaining firms reduce their production into those markets where some firms are not producing.

Despite the volume of literature examining the role of producer amenities (e.g., highways and airports) in firms’ selection of a location, almost no quantitative studies regard the impact of consumer amenities (e.g., theatres and cafes) in attracting firms, as they are hypothesized to attract residents rather than firms or companies. Since the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is regarded as a significant driver and an increasingly important part of the economy in North American and European countries, this research aims to provide insight into the importance of consumer amenities in the location pattern of companies in this sector. Consumer amenities are stated to be important factors in the lifestyle of creative and talented workers such as employees of high-tech industries (Florida, 2003); therefore, this study hypothesizes that ICT firms tend to locate near consumer amenities as they are assumed to be attractive to the talented and highly educated workers that those firms want to employ. ICT firms, because of their size and use, can also be integrated into existing land use, such as downtown where there are lots of amenities. Industrial uses would be more likely to locate near highways because of their land requirements. This thesis looks at a broad pattern as an exploratory study to see if there is a location pattern between consumer amenities and ICT firms’ location. Using census data from Canadian industries, this thesis focuses on exploring a spatial pattern for distribution of ICT companies, both with regards to amenities and the location of firms in other industries. In doing so, information of 66,078 firms that operate in Vancouver and their associated data were obtained from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Business Database. A walkability index is also developed that represents the amenity variable. The findings of this study suggest that ICT firms are more likely to be found in areas with a high concentration of consumer amenities. However, the result shows that there is statistically weak relationship between location of ICT firms and existence of consumer amenities, but this relationship is generally not detected for firms in other sectors. Moreover, the most significant finding of this thesis is that there is a tendency for ICT firms to locate close to and concentrated in downtown cores. As a result, the findings demonstrate that the agglomeration factor in ICT firms’ location decision is more important than the existence of consumer amenities in the place. This study concludes by suggesting that municipalities and their local economic development specialists wanting to attract regional economic growth to better understand and focus on the determinant elements of location decision by ICT firms.

Governments of the G7 have relied primarily on two strategies to develop their respective economies, the commercialization of research using licensing models and new venture creation. Yet, they have acknowledged no specific approach to achieving commercialization success. In fact, the results of the methods used for the commercialization of results are generally viewed as not satisfactory, thus creating room for new approaches to be proposed. One of the strategies used to assist the commercialization process has been recently instituted through social actors called innovation intermediaries. Their involvement in the commercialization process has the potential not only to facilitate the process but also to diffuse knowledge and foster innovation. To date, their practices are still under development, motivating academics in various disciplines to originate research studies aimed at gaining a better understanding of them. The literature has proposed definitions and attributed functions to innovation intermediaries, but it has not arrived at a definitive description of these actors or their activities. In practice, innovation intermediaries do not have a standard operational structure, established methods, or metrics to report their results; they have yet to, establish their own practices or use evidence to inform their activities. The objective of this study is to clarify their practices and challenge their current modus operandi with a view to improvement. To explain the activities of innovation intermediaries (their practice), to expose the role of evidence, and to represent the main concerns of innovation intermediaries, a framework based on distinctive attributes of the practice was produced using insights gained from a systematic literature review, an exploratory study, and literature stressing the importance of evidence. The framework was tested using a confirmatory study in the form of an online survey with the participation of 55 innovation intermediaries from around the world. The results show that innovation intermediaries have a predisposition to focus their practice on strategic concerns, finding a fit for the venture offering in the market while neglecting to oversee the mechanisms required for developing a viable venture offering. They tend to support their decisions anecdotally, referencing their previous experiences without the support of systematic methods to corroborate their conclusions. Their prioritized goals are first, to persuade investors and sponsors to collaborate with their clients; second, to help their clients occupy a leading position in their markets, and third, to support their clients to refine the venture offering and transform it into a commercial success. The emergent framework has characterized the practice of innovation intermediaries, identified particular gaps in their activities and their use of evidence, and suggested that the current focus in the practice of innovation intermediaries may not be contributing all that it could to the commercialization process. This framework may be of significant value to advance this field of knowledge and hopefully contribute to professionalize the practice of these social actors. Ultimately, this research could form the foundation for strengthening evidence-based best practices for innovation intermediaries.

Risky intertemporal choice is a fairly new topic in the realm of behavioral economics that involves examining the interactions between individuals’ time and risk preferences. Previous research has looked at the gains and mixed domain, but little to no research has been done in the loss domain. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how people respond to risky gambles in the loss domain given real world time delays. The thesis focuses on changes in attitudes towards risk caused by temporal distance rather than how people discount risky prospects. Based on Construal Level Theory we predict that there will be a greater focus on outcomes over probabilities in delayed gambles compared to immediate ones, and hence, individuals will become more risk-averse for delayed gambles that are in the loss domain. We conducted two experiments to test this prediction. Results revealed that while subjects in the immediate resolution group were significantly more risk-seeking than future resolution groups in both experiments, the difference in risk attitudes between two delayed resolutions depend on how big the difference between two delays is.

The paper provides a model that assesses the set of complementary components of varying compatibility and its effect towards consumer adoption decisions. The smartphone market is a system good which utilizes the device and a set of compatible applications (apps). The amount of switching costs may vary depending upon the consumer’s decision to switch devices or across platforms. Analyzing the Android ecosystem, the process of custom ROMs (and rooting) and the large set of games, news, etc. apps justify the existence of device-specific and platform-specific apps. The model reinforces the findings of a survey conducted by UBS suggesting the retention rate (i.e. level of switch costs) of Apple users is higher than Android users. The retention among Android devices is much lower in comparison as well. The model observes that the product fragmentation and the interdependence of apps lead to the noticeably lower retention rates across Android devices and platforms.

The continuous facility layout problem consists of arranging a set of facilities so that no pair overlaps and the total sum of the pairwise connection costs (proportional to the center-to-center rectilinear distance) is minimized. This thesis presents a completely mixed integer semidefinite programming (MISDP) model for the continuous facility layout problem. To begin we describe the problem in detail; discuss the conditions required for a feasible layout; and define quaternary variables. These variables are the basis of the MISDP model. We prove that the model is an exact formulation and a distinction is made between the constraints that semidefinite programming (SDP) optimization software can solve and those that must be relaxed. The latter are called exactness constraints and three possible exactness constraints are shown to be equivalent. The main contribution of this thesis is the theoretical development of a MISDP model that is based on quaternary, as oppose to binary, variables; nevertheless preliminary computational results will be presented for problems with 5 to 20 facilities. The optimal solution is found for problems with 5 and 6 facilities, confirming the validity of the model; and the potential of the model is revealed as a new upper bound is found for an 11-facility problem.

Storytelling is a powerful means of communication that has been employed by humankind from the early stages of development. As technology has advanced, the medium through which people tell stories has evolved from verbal, to writing, performing on stage, and more recently television, movies, and video games. A promising medium for the telling of stories in an in-person, one-on-one or one-to-many setting is a digital table—a large, horizontal multi-touch surface—that can provide quick access to visuals and narrative elements at the touch of one’s hands and fingers. In this work, I present the results of an exploratory study on storytellers’ interaction behaviours while working with digital tables, and its physical counterparts of sand and water. My results highlight some of the differences in these media that can both help and hinder a storyteller’s narrative process. I use these findings to present design implications for the design of applications for storytelling on digital multi-touch surfaces.

Physical distribution networks are integral parts of modern supply chains. When faced with a question of which node in a network is more important, cost immediately jumps to mind. However, in a world of uncertainty, there are other significant factors which should be considered when trying to answer such a question. The integrity of a network, as well as its robustness are factors that we consider, in making a judgement of importance. We develop algorithms to measure several properties of a class of networks. To accelerate the optimization of multiple related linear programs, we develop a modification of the revised simplex method, which exploits several key aspects to gain efficiency. We combine these algorithms and methods, to give rankings of the relative importance of nodes in networks. In order to better understand the usefulness of our method, we analyse the effect parameter changes have on the relative importance of nodes. We present a large, realistic network, whose nodes we rank in importance. We then vary the network's parameters and observe the impact of each change.

Risk management is one of the critical issues in supply chain management. Supply chain disruptions negatively impact on the performance and the business continuity of a firm, and the disruptions should be managed proactively if possible. One of the approaches for supply disruption management is to raise the level of inventory: supply disruptions can be reduced by simply increasing the safety stock level. However, inventory costs will be increased at the same time. Therefore it is assumed that having extra safety stock when and where needed is better than keeping a high safety stock all of the time. In this thesis, the concept of dynamic inventory management by supplier behavior monitoring is suggested and explored. Key to the concept is the assumption that out-of-control situations at a supplier can be causal triggers for stockouts, and that these triggers can be potentially predicted by using statistical monitoring tools. In the suggested approach, the statistical process control approach of using run tests is employed to monitor and evaluate the supplier behavior. The supplier’s yield rate is monitored as the performance measure, and the receiver’s safety stock level is increased when the supplier’s performance is detected to be potentially out-of-control (or about to reach an out-of-control situation). The simulation results under different yield rates indicate that stockouts can be reduced by monitoring the supplier behavior and dynamically adjusting inventory policy when production capacity is relatively loose and enough variability can be seen in the performance measure.